Taking inspiration from the Imabari’s dyeing techniques, architect Emmanuelle Moureaux unveils her latest colorful installation, ‘1000 Colors Recipe’. Paying homage to the industry of this area, hoping to visualize the delicate and accurate recipes required in the processes of dyeing, Moureaux’s installation presents a matrix of 17000 textile symbols saturated from a palette of 1000 colors specially created to form this installation. The elements that make up the recipe are the percentage of three principles of color: cyan, magenta, and yellow, percentages from each are carefully calculating alongside variations in time and temperature, dyeing values composed of numerical figures 0-9.
By precisely managing all of these elements, colors delicately different to each other are created. These 17 types of symbols that make up the recipe were dyed in 1000 different colors, and they were cut out in the shape of symbols, connected with thread, and then suspended at the center of the atrium of the Spiral Garden (SPIRAL, Tokyo).
1000 colors are condensed to form a circle at the center, one color for one thread, and the un-dyed white symbols wrap the outer circumference emphasize the existence of 1000 colors. The total number of symbols used is about 17000. Symbols are arranged in a three-dimensional grid, while they may be seen floating aligned or chaotic depending on the viewing position. When sitting under the symbol, you will see various recipes as you drown in colors.
“1000 Colors Recipe” was created by the fusion of Emmanuelle’s colors with high-quality skills of Imabari’s dyeing technicians. The technique of “dyeing” and the creation of “1000 colors”, multiplied by the delicacy of both have become a grand installation.
all images © Daisuke Shima