Hélène
Delprat
Hi Han Song,
2013
11’ aprox.
Single channel, Black & white, stereo sound Edition of 5
Presented by Galerie Christophe Gaillard (Paris) at #LOOP14
This film is yet another proof of Hélène Delprat’s interest for the «donkey» motif: The Alexamenos graffito depicting a human-like figure attached to a cross and possessing the head of a donkey, the Golden Ass by Apuleius, Carmina Burana, the Ass Fest with its monstruous hee-haws, Pythagoras’ donkey lady, Peau d’âne by Jacques Demy, Donkey Burger or Subleyras’ odd painting at the Musée de l’Ermitage, this double figure, not unlike a Silenus, both fool and wise man, haunts her. In this video, we bare witness to the miracle of the Holy Ear, and its worship in a cave.
Inspired by the literature (the Metamorphoses of Ovid), cinema (les enfants terribles), or radio, Hélène Delprat develops through a daily practice that involves both drawing, painting, photography, archives, or video, a work full of self-mockery, a sort of "book of Hours" both squeaky and sensitive which blend fiction and documentary. She loves the idea of death but funny, monstrous, outrageous, sad... Its true or false Interviews, radio and drawings collections of articles complement this sort of inventory of a world of chance and programming. Her work is equally crossed by the issues of registration, memory, identity, travel.
Hélène Delprat was born in1957. She lives and works in Paris.