TOYAMA – the first sign of color has made its way into the sky. It is 06:30, on November 16, 2017. the inspiration for ‘Color of time’, by Tokyo-based artist Emmanuelle Moureaux, has begun. 799 minutes pass by. 99 colors are documented. Now, it’s 19:49. Astronomical twilight has occurred, and the final shade, 100, blackness, has been recorded — at Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design, this flow of time, perceived through the constant journey of 100 colors, is on display.

Part 2 of the Toyama Prefectural Museum’s opening ceremony exhibition introduced wood, metal and new, forefront materials, but Moureaux’s color of time proves the beauty of a material as commonplace as paper. ‘Color of time’ superimposes a sensory element (color) with a mathematical one (time). Approximately 120,000 numeral figures from ‘0’ to ‘9’, a single symbol ‘:’ — these figures, aligned in grids, seem dense, but they merely express the movement of minutes.

Seconds, hours, days, years, milliseconds, and smaller — the installation’s 100 layers flow from left to right. The top-most front-layer starts pale, at sunrise. Paper pieces gradually grow darker as one follows beneath a tunnel of digits. The installation nears darkness. At 19:49, astronomical darkness is displayed by a first time color for Emmanuelle’s work — black.

Within the tunnel, an indoor sky is tinted with a beautiful gradation. The colorful flow of time is subtle. Here, traveling through it, time is tangible, loud, overwhelming, and peaceful.

Design: Emmanuelle Moureaux
Photography: Daisuke Shima

https://www.designboom.com/art/emmanuelle-moureaux-color-time-01-17-2018/