Sylvie Sauvageon

"For Sylvie Sauvageon, drawing usually means “remaking” what she sees with pencils; that is, transposing, rather than slavishly copying, an object, a space, or an image. In other words, drawing is not a way of inventing forms, but rather of indexing them by using lines and surfaces to duplicate the perceived aspect of the reality that surrounds her, or more specifically of the reality that observes her; indeed, Sylvie Sauvageon chooses her subjects less for their quality as objects than for the particular connection she has with them. In the artist’s own words, “My whole work is based on my relationship to the world (mainly in terms of time and size). In order to know and understand where others stand, I need to make the appearance of things and images (shared or personal) my own and to reproduce it. […] As if drawing became the proof of their existence.” (Interview with Anne-Cécile Guitard, 2012) Therefore, drawing is not only the process of capturing with pictures, but also of physically capturing the intimate collection the artist has put together. Drawing became her method of choice to keep the reality around her at a distance. […] By reviving these times and places through drawing, Sylvie Sauvageon engages in a strange study of the memory of forms and signs, letting her own memory and ours gradually reconstruct the puzzle of a story both intimate and collective. However, the subject here isn’t strictly speaking nostalgia, but a recollective work that questions the past in the present, or the past elements that make up the artist’s present. While the time she spends drawing is not meant to provide any explanation, it does, however, allow her to measure the gap that constitutes it by delving into these signs. Drawing to put down roots.” […]

Excerpt from a text by Philippe Agostini, 2015
Translated by Lucy Pons