Designer Emmanuelle Moureaux of Tokyo has created an installation from interlocking coloured sticks at three Issey Miyake fashion stores in Tokyo.

Entitled Sticks, the project was inspired by the game of Mikado or Pick-up Sticks, where players try to remove individual sticks from a scattered pile without disturbing the others.

The installation was in place until last week.

Photographs are by Nacasa & Partners.

Here’s some more information from Moureaux:

Sticks by Emmanuelle Moureaux
Balance out of balance

ISSEY MIYAKE women, men, PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE.

411 sticks connecting the three spaces

Their colors and shadows float and overlap, creating a new space with a new appearance.

Like flown away into space and floating there, the sticks spread all around the space. As if time stands still, “a balance out of balance” is created.

The concept of sticks was inspired by a European children’s game “MIKADO*”, which was often played before. The sticks randomly positioned as inspired by MIKADO create tensions and chance balances, which were designed to become tangible forms.

It was designed to be structurally balanced in spite of its unbalanced appearance.

*A competitive game for neat-handedness by using bamboo sticks. You grab a bunch of sticks, let them stand on a desk vertically and open the hand quickly; this is where the game starts.

The sticks fall apart, the participants take turns to pull a stick quietly without moving the other sticks.　

The next person takes turn when the other sticks are moved even if only slightly.

The same process repeats, and the participants are ranked based on their scores at the end of the game.