She signed the mural yesterday, using a stencil of bold typography with “HYDRANE” written in it. I was there earlier, at rue Legouve, in the 10th district of Paris. The artist at work, in the open air, is an artwork in itself, a performance, a transformation ritual witnessed with intrigue by Parisians as they pass by. I documented Hydrane’s progress on her mural and shortly discussed the beauty and sorrow of street art ephemerality. I got to ask the artist how long she’s been doing her artwork, “Maybe 6 or 5 years”, she told me. I also asked if street art was always the format, and if not, what were the origins of her artistic practice. As a matter of fact, Hydrane started mostly working with collage, transitioning to painting media, and finally concluding by finding her current main media of expression; street art.
The beauty of Hydrane’s works lies in the relationship between her colors and shapes which fit foreignly in the classic Paris landscape. All of a sudden the grayish pink, so iconic and homogenous all around the city, becomes challenged by neon bio lime and innumerable other hues. The shapes, the technique is like a sort of DNA code, a portrait of the artist herself, if you were to find one of her street interventions in Paris, you would know you have encountered Hydrane.
