In 1956 Japanese avant-garde artist Atsuko Tanaka (1932-2005) created the Denkifuku or Electric Dress, a wearable piece of art consisting in a kimono-like sculpture. The kimono was made with hundreds of lightbulbs painted with primary colours by enamel.
The artwork moved from traditions, but paid homage to modern industrial technology (the lights were inspired by neon advertising signs) while also inviting the viewer to consider the potential threat of modern times and of alluring technologies (the electric circuits of the kimono represented a danger for the wearer).
Tanaka would wear the piece to create a performance: the lights would indeed blink on and off every two and a half minutes. The moving lights hinted at blood pulsating through the artist's veins and body, symbolically turning into electricity.
The sculpture looks a bit like a post-modern Christmas tree, but the main idea of the artwork was transitioning from the past into a brighter future.
Tanaka was part of the Gutai group, an avant-garde artists' movement that wanted to mix art and life, go beyond the borders of existing art, encourage artists to create innovative works never created before rather than imitating artists from the past and find new beginnings to put the horrors of the war behind them.
So, for today let's use Tanaka's Electric Dress as a symbolic Christmas tree that may help us putting the horrors behind us. In this very atypical Christmas many of us may be experiencing isolation and separation because of Covid-19, but let's try and have the best day as possible.
Read, watch TV, play, write an email, chat with distant friends and family members online, make something creative for yourself or for your house, remember those ones who are not with us anymore because of Coronavirus and don't forget all those essential workers who have kept our communities running throughout the year. Merry Christmas!
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