shikiri

"Dividing and creating space through colors"

"I use colors as three-dimensional elements, like layers, in order to create spaces,
not as a finishing touch applied to surfaces."  emmanuelle moureaux

(shikiri is a made-up word that literally means " to divide space using colors")

In 1995, a week-long trip to Tokyo as an architectural student gave me the passion for colors. Overwhelming number of store signs, flying electrical cables, and the fragments of blue sky between various volumes of buildings – it was the flow of staggering colors pervading the street that built a complex depth and density, creating three-dimensional layers in the city of Tokyo. I felt a lot of emotions seeing all these colors, and in that very moment, I decided to move to this city. As soon as receiving the French Architect License in 1996, I move from France to Tokyo. In response to the unforgettable experience of colors and layers in Tokyo, I came up with my design concept called "shikiri", which means dividing (creating) space with colors. "Shikiri" is an invented name that literally means "to divide space using colors", in Japanese. I use colors as three-dimensional elements, like layers, in order to create spaces – not as a finishing touch applied on surfaces.

Inspired by the traditional Japanese spatial elements like the sliding screens, I began my exploration of "surface" shikiri, gradually developing into thinner colors – "line" shikiri. My exploration of the form of color through surface and lines has been on a journey between different scales, from a small art piece to architecture. For example, with stick chair (2007), I have attempted to push limit of piloti structure, which then transformed into spatial element in sticks (2010), and I plan to translate it into architectural structure in the future project. The two dimensional motifs designed for Sugamo Shinkin Bank Tokiwadai Branch (2010) has been translated into three dimensional modules in eda (2010). The Sugamo Shinkin Bank Shimura Branch (2011), also known as “rainbow mille-feuille” has been remodeled in the furniture scale as mille-feuille (2013). The interlocking modular artwork, toge (2011) has been explored spatially in bloom bloom bloom (2012), and I hope to turn 'toge' into building in the future. 

In 2013, I unveiled 100 colors installation in Tokyo, to mark the 10th anniversary of my studio. The installation focused on showing full spectrum of colors to express the emotion I felt from seeing colors and layers of Tokyo. This was the launch exhibition of 100 colors series, which I am planning to exhibit in different cities around the world.

I want to give emotion through colors, whether it is architecture or an art piece. Through my creation, I want people to see colors, touch colors, and feel colors with their senses. The overflowing effects of colors in space will show that colors can give more than a space, but a space with additional layers of human emotion.