Toon Leën is a visual artist whose work moves between painting, video, and lecture performance.
Currently, he's a PhD candidate in artistic research at Hasselt University and PXL-MAD, School of Arts, Hasselt (Belgium). His PhD project The I of the Work: Mediating Between Images as an Artistic Practice explores why images so often appear to operate with agendas of their own. Building on the work of scholars in visual culture studies, Bildwissenschaft, and anthropology, this research project connects three intersecting lines of inquiry: it addresses the interaction between images, the ability of images to evoke empathy, and the ways in which images can be used as substitutes. Premised on the idea that the agency of images is a function of relations rather than of fixed attributes, this project investigates the elements that establish such relations, and seeks to follow the images' movements, imagine their motives, and facilitate their mutual attractions.
The first stage of this research culminated in the exhibition ----Sarah Bal---- at Fred&Ferry Gallery in Antwerp (February-March 2022). The exhibition featured a series of abstract paintings and a video lecture by fictional artist Sarah Bal.