Thursday Salute to Originals: Colorful Paper Passageway

Emmanuelle Moureaux hangs 140,000 individual colored paper letters to create a rainbow passageway in Japan.

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Moureaux is a Tokyo-based architect, originally from France, who is known for using color as a three-dimensional element to create tangible layers and spaces. Rather than applying colors as a decorative element to her pieces, different shades are used to build layers and division as an integrated part of the design process.

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Her latest work, an installation titled Universe of Words, is a rainbow passageway made of thousands of colorful bits of paper letters from the Japanese writing system, hiragana. Deploying her signature layering technique, Moureaux uses a three-dimensional grid to align the letters into separate spaces.

The architect was inspired by Japanese culture and the Tanabata Festival or “Star Festival” — a celebration of two celestial lovers. Her walkthrough mirrors a tradition where festivalgoers will write wishes on vertical strips of colored paper to be hung on display and paraded in public.

The result is an emotional, immersive walkthrough experience of an ombre of color.

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“The universe created by these floating hiraganas evokes emotion through its stillness and its endlessness,” said Moureaux in an interview with This is Colossal.

This Thursday, we’re saluting Emmanuelle Moureaux’s Universe of Words. This installment is a part of the architect’s ongoing 100 Colors series. You can view more of the artist’s work on Instagram.

Sources: Emmanuelle Moureaux, This is Colossal