He draws inspiration from his fascination with history, mythology, fantasy, and ancient artifacts, blending these with contemporary elements such as memes, drag, Y2K, and hyperfashion. His works seem to emerge from fictional and vaguely defined times and cultures in which the historical and the contemporary flow into one another.
To this end, he makes use of elements that recur throughout his work: collages of images, stains and markings, and fragments of text.
The collages come from his archive, in which he collects images that intuitively fascinate and appeal to him. He brings certain images together based on feeling and chance to give the work a specific direction while also leading the viewer astray. To this he adds stains and markings that sometimes appear expressive or aesthetic, but primarily mimic a patina of wear and the passage of time. And the fragments of text, which resemble notes from historians or historical graffiti by passersby, are actually intuitive streams of consciousness that refine or further expand the mystery of the work.
In the videos and VR, these elements take on a different form. The collage unfolds not side by side in space, but one after another in time. The grain of analog film replaces the paint stain. Subtitles and voice-over take the place of the text fragments.
His works evoke a sense of wonder. The same wonder we feel when encountering a Roman dodecahedron whose purpose is unknown, when we imagine the rituals and stories hidden behind the frescoes in the Villa dei Misteri, or the world-building of The Lord of the Rings.
In an age when images vanish faster than they can build meaning, Coppens creates artifacts that compel the viewer to slow down.