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‘When I saw the cityscape of Tokyo for the first
time...it was as if I saw colours for the first time. Thousands of colours seemed to be floating in the cityscape, as layers, as three-dimensional elements. It was so beautiful! I felt such a lot of emotions that in the first two hours I was in Tokyo, I decided to move there’
At the M. art museum in Almere, in the Netherlands, her latest creation, 100 Colors No.45: 8760 hours, allows visitors to experience the passage of time in unique and colourful ways until the end of February 2024. Te installation, her first in Te Netherlands, features 8,760 paper clocks in 100 colours, with each clock representing one hour. Together, all of the clocks depict the number of hours in a year.
Moureaux’s ongoing work with the 100 Colors series all has the same ambition – to help others to experience the joy of colour in the same way that she does. Each artwork offers the opportunity to take in the same 100 shades of colour in a single glance – something that seldom occurs in everyday life. ‘I chose the most beautiful (for me) 100 shades of colours to create my own personal colour palette,’ she explains. ‘Te selection was totally intuitive and emotional, but the colours are inspired by those I see in the cityscape of Tokyo and the emotion I felt from seeing overflowing colours when I first visited the city in 1995.
‘I also want to give opportunities for people to see and feel colours with their senses, to become more conscious of the colours that exist around them. In 100 Colors, these shades are explored in various forms depending on the environment, to maximise their beauty. When that number of colours enter the body in a single glance, it triggers a physical response, and I want viewers to engage with that sensation.’
Te fact that her work has been highly prized around the world speaks of how this delight in colour transcends boundaries. It's a principle that Moureaux carries through from her art into her architecture, products and interiors. ‘Usually in architecture or interior design, colour is often considered as a minor element, a two-dimensional
element, a finishing touch applied on surfaces and decided at the end of the design process,’ she says.
She has developed her own philosophy of using colour that she calls Shikiri, a word based on the Japanese words and script for ‘colour’ and ‘partition’, that underpins the way she works. ‘In traditional Japanese architecture, partitions such as sliding paper screens were used to divide spaces according to the function or the climate. Tese beautiful screens were disappearing from Japan, replaced by Western-style walls or doors [and so] I came up with my design concept of “Shikiri”, which means dividing or creating space with colour itself. I use colours as three- dimensional elements, like layers, in order to create spaces, not as a finishing touch applied to surfaces.’ It’s a way of working that is constantly evolving as Moureaux’s understanding deepens, from the largely surface-based colours of her earliest art installations, to thinner lines of colour and then to more graphic pieces like Forest of Numbers (100 Colors No. 31) and Universe of Words (100 Colors No. 28). Her latest works delve even more into the philosophy of time and memory, including 100 Colors No. 47: Timeline, a permanent exhibition of a beam of colourful numbers symbolising the diversity of people and moments of life, on permanent display at Building Lumière in Paris, and 100 Colors No. 43: Memory, a work of 201,552 coloured numbers exhibited in Tokyo earlier this year. New installations are already planned for the coming year, with no danger of the inspiration drying up. ‘100 Colors is an ongoing, never-ending project made for everyone,’ Moureaux says. ‘In their daily lives, people are usually not conscious about colour. I want people to breathe and immerse in 100 shades of colours, to see colours, touch colours and feel colours with all their senses. I want to add a touch of colour to the world.’
LEFT AND MIDDLE LEFT: ERWIN BUDDING
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