Sotheany Sophie Ek was born and raised in Belgium.
Her parents moved to Belgium in the 80's after Khmer Rouge War.
Growing up in Belgium in a Cambodian household has led the artist feeling conflicted about her own identity. Which lead her to working with languages and singing Cambodian songs for some of her performances.
The artist wants to communicate with the viewer through historical events, knowing that every person has his own relationship with the past.
Every person is writing his own story, but to understand this narrative we need to try to understand our antecedent. Consequently, our past is the key to our lives.
Next to that, Sophie also gets her inspiration from newspaper images and stories that she read about.
Her paintings, drawings and sculptures are a reflection on global issues such as enforced migration, identity, power, the absurdism of human actions.
Philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre, who described freedom as complete and endless, but also acknowledged that this does not mean that freedom does not have any limits: although it may never meet these.
The second philosopher she uses as a source of inspiration is Albert Camus. He stated that the absurd helped to fill the emptiness of humanity.
Every viewer has their own interpretation of 'the scenes' they see in the paintings, drawings and/or sculptures.
However, as long as we have humanity, we will always have these never ending stories.