Sarah Suzuki: This work is by the Japanese artist Atsuko Tanaka. She was trained as a figurative painter, in Osaka. And in 1955, she joined Gutai. Gutai was a group of artists who all had really interesting ideas about pushing art forward. And a lot of the work had to do with action as art.
Glenn Lowry: In 1956, when she was 24 years old, she designed The Electric Dress as part of a performance.
Sarah Suzuki: The Electric Dress was just what it sounds like. It was this cone-shaped dress that was covered in wired circuits, and colored light bulbs.
There was something about that work that I think stayed with her for the rest of her life. She became essentially, obsessed with the painting of these circles, and these circuitry grids.
