Leonard van Munster surreal art

Part architect, part artist and part provocateur, it is hard to know what to expect next from Dutch designer Leonard Van Munster. These works of art are arguably more like installations, but not in the conventional or predictable sense.

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Leonard van Munster tiny trailer home

Take this tiny trailer ‘home’ for example – it starts out simple enough, with a foam-insulation-lined space that doubles in size when parked and pulled out. But on the interior, there is more than meets the eye – a faux living room where green reigns supreme. Definitely form over function.

Leonard van Musnter puzzling sculpture

Or how about this police-puzzling sculpture. The inspiration was actually tied to a weird work of art found in the digital world of Second Life, in which a bunch of objects were thrown together with uncanny ease (in a way only possible in pixel-space). In the real world, the effect is … well, unnerving, as if reality were collapsing in around this collection of everyday odds and ends, compressing appliances, sheds, desks, chairs, fans, lamps and more into a tiny ball.

Leonard van Munster miniaturized city

And then we have this city on the water. No, you aren’t misreading the photographs – everything is indeed miniaturized. The result is something between a tiny-sized town, or a giant-sized architectural model, and doubles as a working water feature complete with a fountain (which trickles down the rocks visible in the background) and a pool of water surrounding the scene. Strange does not begin to cover it.

About Leonard van Munster, via Wikipedia:

“Leonard van Munster is a Dutch contemporary artist making Site-specific and Subject-specific work. He studied from 1992 to 1996 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. This included an exchange program to Parsons School of Art and Cooper Union in New York. Van Munster’s installations are to be found mostly in public spaces, where the surroundings play an important role in the work and how it is experienced.”

“Sometimes, he chooses a location that suits an already made sketch, and sometimes he makes a work especially for a specific location. Although his works at first glance have a cheery or boyish look about them, there is a more sensitive idea at their basis. Recurrent underlying themes are desire, homesickness and sentiment: a frozen moment of happiness or a childhood memory.”