Alive with color

French-born Emmanuelle Moureaux fell in love with the “colors overflowing on the street” in the city of Tokyo, Japan, and established Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture and Design after moving to Tokyo in 1996. Her focus is a concept she calls “shikiri,” dividing or creating space with color, and her architectural, interior and display work radiate with engaging and beautiful hues and materials. Her current plans revolve around ‘100 colors,’ a series of dynamic installations she plans to install in cities around the globe.

The first installation consisted of large sheets of colored paper floating over a modern, simple building lobby. The Shinjuku City Council invited Moureaux to bring her next 100-colors installation outdoors for the Shinjuku Creators Festa 2014. In August, Moureaux transformed an area within the Central Park Water Plaza with 1,875 strips of hand-dyed cotton fabric that move with the breeze, as if the color is breathing or dancing.

There were 100 distinct colors (plus white) represented in the installation, each strip hanging from wires suspended among the trees. Park visitors could walk or sit beneath the waving color mass. Each fabric strip was approximately 8 feet long and positioned above the ground just high enough for people to reach up and touch (or be touched by) the fabric. For more information, visit www.emmanuelle.jp.