While there is no figure visible in this drawing, its interconnected network of circular forms evokes the electrical currents that pulse through human cells and machines alike. Tanaka made this work on paper the same year she created her iconic Electric Dress, a garment of two hundred colored light bulbs that the artist wore during a performance, despite the risk of electrocution. In her works from this period, Tanaka responded to the bright lights of advertising signs and the technological transformations of postwar Japan, ambivalently probing the intertwining of technology and the human body.

Gallery label from

Vital Signs: Artists and the Body, November 3–February 22, 2024

Medium Crayon, watercolor, and felt-tip pen on paper
Dimensions 42 7/8 x 30 3/8" (108.9 x 77.2 cm)
Credit Purchased with funds provided by the Edward John Noble Foundation, Frances Keech Fund, and Committee on Drawings Funds
Object number 21.2010
Department Drawings and Prints

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