Incollect Magazine - Issue 12

86 www.incollect.com movement and depth. Sculpted and gilded oak or bronze “roots” wrap, climb or are embedded in the piece, serving as hardware. Interior drawers are patinated in gold leaf to give a secretly luxurious feel. Moreau describes La Griffe Du Temps (The Claw of Time) : “We feel here the cycle of life, as when time does its work and it lets us glimpse the precious heart of matter. You can see the eye of time, the wood that splits or the movement of the roots that we find when man lets nature and life do what it will.” The rhythms of nature are merged with human experience in everything Moreau creates. The Dolomites sculptural seating collection has several slipper chair designs in hand-hewn carved solid oak tinted with Chinese ink, embellished with delicate accent lines in gold leaf. In this chair series the artist, Vignault explains, “plays on the contrast between the softness of the curves and the roughness of the reliefs that remind us of the rough natural lines that are found on cliffs at the seaside in proximity to magnificent rocks polished round by the rolling of the water, as if sculpted.” Dolomite III perfectly captures this duality. The front of the chair recalls a perfectly smooth pebble eroded by water, and the back of the chair is gouge-carved in places to imitate natural weathering and erosion over time, with a gold leaf slit “sneaking between the rocks.” Dolomite IV, a slipper chair of carved solid oak, gold leaf, and neoprene is the most radical in the series. A “cushion” of neoprene foam strings is knotted and sewn individually onto a seat of the same material embedded in the wooden form. The cushion section is outlined with a meandering outline of gold leaf, and the contrasting textures create a strikingly animated effect. Admirers of Moreau’s art have a special affection for her Metaphysical Desk, a one-of-a-kind edition with four drawers made of brass and solid oak, carved by hand and stained with her signature Chinese ink in an ombré effect. The piece combines Asian art and Brutalist design influences and has been exhibited to acclaim at several museums, galleries, and art fairs including PAD Paris and Masterpiece in London. “It’s like a meditative object,” Vignault says, “a functional sculpture that asks what it means to inhabit a space or interact with a surface. The title clearly situates the object within a philosophical framework, challenging the viewer to consider essence over appearance, contemplation over consumption.” Left: Space Time 7, 2025. Pencil drawing on paper with embedded piece of coal. Framed under glass. Right: Space Time 9, 2025. Pencil drawing on paper with embedded piece of coal. Framed under glass.