Exhibition: Slices of Time

Emmanuelle Moureaux has been seducing audiences with her colourful installations from Paris to Tokyo. The complexity and delightful aesthetic fills space with cut out coloured paper to create a world where the essence of every carefully considered colour can be appreciated. NOW Gallery, as part of its on-going Design Commission, selected Moureaux to present a large-scale installation in the UK for the first time.

Inspired by the gallery’s location on the Greenwich Peninsula, near to the Meridian, marking time and composed of layers of numbers in 100 shades of colours and white, the installation expresses the flow of time. Each layer of numbers reflects the now, the past and the future, the exhibition will be a round representation of the earth floating in the gallery space. A moment, a slice of time. Creating dates to be acknowledged and a moment to think about ourselves in contemplation with the now.

The installation will offer its visitors the time to remember a significant date. Round paper will be available to write this chosen date on in coloured pen; and why it is important. This will be placed on the window of the gallery, along a timeline which will create a kaleidoscope of colour.

Born in 1971, France, Emmanuelle Moureaux is a French architect who has been living in Tokyo since 1996, where she established “emmanuelle moureaux architecture + design” in 2003. Inspired by the layers and colours of Tokyo that built a complex depth and density on the street, and the Japanese traditional spatial elements like sliding screens, she has created the concept of “shikiri”, which literally means “dividing (creating) space with colours”. She uses colours as three-dimensional elements, like layers, in order to create spaces, not as a finishing touch applied on surfaces. Handling colours as a medium to compose space, her wish is to give emotion through colours with her creations, which range from art, design to architecture.

Her representative works include the architectural design for Sugamo Shinkin Bank, “100 colors” art installation series, space design for ABC Cooking Studio, art installations for UNIQLO and ISSEY MIYAKE, and stick chair. In 2017, she has created a large installation “Forest of Numbers” at The National Art Center, Tokyo for its 10th Anniversary exhibition.

Associate Professor at Tohoku University of Art and Design since 2008, Emmanuelle’s laboratory explores the possibilities of colour through a project she named 100 colours lab. Students are asked to create 100 colours palette of an item from their everyday life, such as glasses, bubble foam, rice, umbrella, watches, CD, chocolate block and so on.