Processes of citation and translation abound in the work of Hélène Delprat. An indefatigable collector of both contemporary and historical imagery and texts, Delprat’s references serve as a spark or catalyst, yet the final result holds little respect for the original. She deforms, amplifies, exaggerates and multiplies her source material to create assemblages that are, as the artist says herself, “at times chaotic, a kind of montage and magnetization of forms and ideas that comes together in different ways.” Such assemblages, which can be destroyed at any time, thus imbue the images with another meaning and allow them to tell another story.

The artist discribed her painting as a « sort of Fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (Piero di Cosimo, 1490) or the Battle of San Romano (Paolo Uccello, 1456) ridiculous and wrecked ... A scene of battle or war with decorations, medals and other happy smileys. It is not a history painting it is a story. I have always been interested in war facts, battle scenes and armor. Broken centaurs, chains, standards, ornaments, (we find in other paintings this motif of flags in crossed orange lines - standard of my Autonomous Territory, spears, armor...). The armors are paradoxically tools of defense or pomp of great sophistication: why so much beauty, why the goldsmith's trade to fight. These complex engraved patterns, which can also be found on silverware, make the body beautiful, radiating like an apparition and protect it: Elegant warfare. »