Memory of All Saints’ Day

Can Regression Replace Talent?

Sofie Meulenaere, a self-taught Belgian artist, explores the fragile space between memory and ritual through hypnosis-induced drawings. In this session, she regressed to her childhood self and produced an All Saints’ Day-inspired image: a pot of chrysanthemums before a wooden cross, drawn entirely in crayon. Critics have rejected the work as childish and sentimental, calling it therapy rather than art. 

Sofie Meulenaere, “Memory of All Saints’ Day”, 2023. Crayon on paper. 29.7 x 21 cm (11.7 x 8.27 in.). Museum of Modern Art, Department of Rejected Artists. Acquired through the Hypnosis Studies Fund. ©️Marie Leclerq. Photo by Jean Chapeau.

Click the image to go back to the artist