As with Hopeless to Love You, HYSTERIE COLLECTIVE will present the work of each artist featured in the exhibition Letters // Letters. In response to the questions of fetishism and relic that emerged throughout the making of this exhibition, each artist was invited to share a fetish object from their studio or creative process — an element that accompanies, anchors, or reveals something essential about their practice.
The series begins with
@selmathies , who also took part in Hopeless to Love You.
A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Marseille since June 2025, Selma lives and works in Marseille. Her practice moves between drawing, painting, and writing. Her work explores the representation of language, the place of women’s voices within narratives, and the bonds that connect us.
Through the intersection of drawing, painting, and writing, she seeks to open spaces of possibility and to engage with a collective, sisterly imagination. She follows the threads stretched across time, questioning how they are formed, transmitted, and inhabited today.
When she draws, she works with graphite, eraser, and paper, approaching the process as a form of searching, like digging into the earth with her hands. Her practice unfolds as a sensitive and continuous exploration of women’s presence, connection, and the invisible.
Erasure is a central gesture in her work: at times she covers the surface entirely with graphite, then erases to see what appears. Trace and pentimento are essential to her process, since what disappears can re-emerge, and what emerges can vanish.
Through this dynamic, she searches for traces, presences, and gazes.
Al Bala Imeti Demea
Oil on wood, 80 × 100 cm, 2025.
The Weight of Things Has Changed
Inks on linen and metal, 200 × 173 cm, 2025.
Already the Softness
Graphite and pastel on paper, variable formats between 11 and 21 cm, 2024.
The Face of Silence
Graphite on paper, 30 × 24 cm, 2025.
