{"data":{"id":"17618","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":17618,"topgoose_id":14312,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":17618,"title":"Bombshell","display_artist_text":"E.V. Day","display_date":"1999","accession_number":"2002.318","dimensions":"192 x 240 x 240 in.","medium":"White crepe dress with monofilament and turnbuckles","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":"Exploded Couture","edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eE.V. Day, \u003cem\u003eBombshell\u003c/em\u003e, 1999. White crepe dress with monofilament and turnbuckles, 192 x 240 x 240 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee 2002.318\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBombshell \u003c/i\u003eis part of a series of installations entitled \u003ci\u003eExploding Couture \u003c/i\u003e(1999-2002) which represent, according to E.V. Day, female figures “extracting themselves from the props of social conventions.” In each installation, a spectacular evening dress, cut into hundreds of pieces, is suspended in midair by an elaborate system of monofilament lines attached to the floor and ceiling with turnbuckles. The dresses appear to be frozen in the midst of a violent explosion. For \u003ci\u003eBombshell,\u003c/i\u003e Day created an 8-foot-high reproduction of the white halter dress immortalized by Marilyn Monroe in the movie, \u003ci\u003eThe Seven Year Itch\u003c/i\u003e (1955). This work deliberately confuses sex and militarism, orgasm and detonation, invoking the 1950s epithet for Monroe: blond bombshell.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A suspended torn white fabric sculpture hangs in a dark gallery, held by many thin wires.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:19:33.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:00:59.657-05:00","images":[{"id":104662,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/17618/2002_318_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"5496","type":"artist"}]}}}}