Things Behaving Badly

Inspiration comes to me from many different places – some obvious, others more unexpected. Photography, film, performance, sculpture, theatre, and literature all play a role. But I’m equally drawn to second-hand advertising websites like Marktplaats.nl, reality TV shows like “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”, my observations on the street, in shops, and in other people’s homes. And then there’s the occult: stories of mediumship, Victorian households, superstition, and folktales.

It’s a mix of influences where the everyday meets the mysterious. I’m particularly fascinated by the way objects can transcend their intended function. Beyond carrying personal memories, they often take on symbolic or metaphorical roles – representing moral lessons, embodying larger themes, or even misbehaving, taking on a life of their own. This idea recurs across genres and forms: in visual art, cinema, literature, and folk narratives.

In my project “I've Been Told Not to Confuse a Goat with a Ghost”, I explored Dutch folktales and superstitions from the Waterland region. At the start of the last century, a local family doctor began collecting these stories from his patients. Passed down orally within small communities, the tales speak of hauntings, witches, nightmares, folk medicine, and strange transformations – humans turning into animals or objects becoming vessels for spirits. For me, these stories reflect our deep need to find meaning and explanation, showing how imagination can transform the mundane into the magical.

(The title “Things Behaving Badly” is inspired by: Briefel, A. “Freaks of Furniture”: The Useless Energy of Haunted Things, Victorian Studies, Vol. 59.)

Marens van Leunen is part of »Guest Room: Aaron Stern«

Check out her Artist Feature Helmersstraat.