In her small parisian studio flat in the 11th district, magazines, art books, pictures, drawings, « Bic » pens and paper sheets covered in ink are all piled up. Her 17 meter square room is a creative space where she expresses her passion for Art, her first love… It’s in this environment that Sophie Marion creates her phantasmagorical work dealing with contemporary matters using a formal language turned to the past. She invites you to discover her work, a disturbing and strange world.

« Tragédies linéaires » gathers drawings in a format A3 using a « Bic » pen.
Freed from classic art codes, I refer myself to symbols and ancient myths in order to offer a personal vision of man’s true nature. The audience steps in a heavy and anxious atmosphere which is inspired by Jerôme Bosch and Giger’s works. I draw a phantasmagorical world full of insects, monsters and hostile vegetation. These fantastic and invading curiosities don’t let themselves be domesticated by men. Everything collapses down, changes, disappears in front of the audience. Amongst all the lines, appears very frequently symbols of the bird and the eye, who witness and act in a very passive way towards this tragedy. The eye observes, sometimes judges but he mainly catches the attention of the audience who is also an actor in the society and reminds him of all his imperfections and his contradictions whereas the bird represents a broken humanity totally hopelesness. Therefore I show men’s fears and doubts in a depressed society and I question myself about centuries old matters : man’s fragility, animality, destruction of nature…

I’ve made a set of drawings that describes the mysteries of human soul throughout the ages. All begins with a myth : Pandora’s box. An unreal face shows all the pain and suffering of our world. Hope is blown away by melancholy. Man’s heart is sucked by a monstruous creature who seems to take a great pleasure in destroying our humanity. From there follows the society abuses : shooting, explosion, duality, murdered nature… All that is left is to cry. In this threatening environment it is very hard to find a peaceful and harmonious place especially when time and death show how fragile is the humankind.

I’ve started this project two years ago not knowing where it would lead to. The world’s news and history have mainly influenced my work. I couldn’t be insensitive to such violence and injustice. So I decided to take my pen and paper… and to draw… I love to work on details, contrasts, line variation which shows how life hangs by a thin thread… Since my childhood I have always been obsessed by this thin thread, this link between life and death… Everything can break down in a split second. This balance is unsteady and insecure.

From an idea, I start to draw straight on the paper and I leave my intuition and consciousness guide me. I don’t like to erase or go backwards. Each drawing is a challenge, a deep personal experience.
I have a lot of difficulty to put an end to them. I love to think that there is a comma rather than a full stop. Maybe I’m anxious of what is next. A very close and intense relationship builds up between the drawing and myself. I forget about time… Usually I finish my drawings in four hours but very often I go back to them or I leave them for a certain time. It’s a never ending conversation between the line and the subject.