Work (Red Dress)

Item is a recreation of a red dress created by Atsuko Tanaka for an exhibition in May 1956. At the Gutai Art On Stage exhibition in 1957, she wore the dress as part of her performance Stage Clothes in which she changed her outfits in quick succession, eventually disappearing under the red dress backdrop, with the stage lights dimmed, while figures dressed in costumes made of coloured flashing light bulbs took the stage before a gigantic cruciform dress, also covered in coloured lights. The red dress was reproduced for exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, from January 21 to March 20, 2005 as part of the exhibition Electrifying Art: Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968.