#atsuko tanaka
“Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.”
~ W. S. Merwin, “Separation”
[’84A - Atsuko Tanaka]
• The themes that preoccupied Mr. Merwin most keenly were those that haunt nearly every poet: the earth, the sea and their myriad creatures; the cycle of the seasons; myth and spirituality (he was a practicing Buddhist); personal history and memory; and, above all, life and its damnable evanescence. More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/obituaries/w-s-merwin-dead-poet-laureate.html
• Atsuko Tanaka was a Japanese avant-garde artist best known for her Neo-Dada Electric Dress (1956), a garment made from hundreds of lightbulbs painted in primary colors. This iconic work, which she wore to exhibitions, functions as a conflation of Japanese traditional clothing with modern urbanization, bringing an unexpected and challenging interpretation to both. “I wanted to shatter stable beauty with my work,” Tanaka once said. More: http://www.artnet.com/artists/atsuko-tanaka/
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