Electric Dress

Atsuko Tanaka's Electric Dress makes a powerful statement just as much now as it did when she wore it, even though today it is no longer a dress but instead a free standing object. The piece was a dress that the artist wore and was made from wires, multi-colored light bulbs and fluorescent tubes. The dress was a statement about technology that was just emerging and the female body and how the two relate to one another. Some critics believe that the piece today doesn't have as much of a powerful statement because it is no longer a dress, but instead a free standing object. To me, making the dress an object takes away the female body part of the piece, and just leaves the technology part, which is not what the work is just about.

Shanken, page 140.