Hicham Berrada b. 1986
The Hygres are sculptures that defy and hybridize earthly laws. Bilateral symmetry, a principle that governs the development of the majority of animal forms, is here applied to mineral forms. Crystals, rocks, and flows have been scanned, merged, and combined with morphogenesis algorithms that describe the development of animal organisms. Inert matter rearranges itself in a mirror, around a central axis, as if it were alive.
This symmetry allows the chaos to become readable and invites interpretation; the sculptures become the supports of a form of oracle or divination. The Hygres encourage surpassing current earthly limits between organic and inorganic matter. Bearing new paradigms, they are ready to become what the observer wishes to see.
Les hygres are an invented name, close from hydres, hydra, which are mythical snake with multiple heads. Hydra are also a specie of aquatic invertebrate, looking like little Y with many heads. In French at least, the word Hydres is often used to name any kind of threat. The hygres are like their unknown cousins, as they are symmetrical creatures in which seems to have multiple heads, but they don’t have to be necessarily threatening like the hydres are.