Welcome to My Bedroom: How to Make the Bed

Hello dear readers,

Let me tell you a little about my work and where my interests lie. It won’t be an adventurous tale – I haven’t traveled the world with a camera in hand, nor have I photographed strangers in far-off places. In fact, I’ve done quite the opposite.

Photography, for me, is a way to zoom in on the everyday – to explore familiar spaces and seemingly banal objects that often go unnoticed. I’m drawn to intimate places like my apartment or the house I grew up in. I’m curious about how these environments and belongings can reveal something about how we live, how we relate to our surroundings, and how we assign value – emotionally or otherwise – to the objects around us.

Although this focus has long been part of my artistic practice, it took time to fully embrace it. I used to question why I didn’t venture further – why I wasn’t the kind of artist who goes out into the world with a camera, meeting new people, building trust, capturing their stories. I’ve always admired those who do. There’s a mystery to that kind of work, a certain kind of courage. But again and again, I found myself returning home.

In 2020, during a period of solitude that many of us experienced, I spent long hours in my bedroom. Strangely, I found a kind of comfort in the boredom. Out of that quiet came a renewed urge to create – using only what I had around me. Sheets, pillows, my desk, a chair, bedlinen—these became the materials for temporary sculptures and installations, visible only to me and my camera. That period reawakened something familiar, an interest I had momentarily set aside. These belongings, once overlooked, became central again. The result was a series titled how to make the bed.

I believe our domestic environments are so familiar that we often stop seeing them. We forget how much they can hold – stories, habits, memories. And that’s exactly why they’re such a rich place to start. By paying closer attention to what surrounds us every day, we can begin to uncover the quiet layers of meaning we usually pass by.

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

Check out her Artist Feature Helmersstraat.