Zena Van den Block’s work translates her interest in popular culture and do-it-yourself, where seemingly mundane aspects of everyday situations move her. Through observation and the accumulation of collections, she notices recurring habits. Patterns that are present everywhere, sometimes unconsciously, she translates by isolating elements and altering the usual context. In doing so, she playfully leaves room for chance and mistakes.

She does not limit herself to one medium but explores which material best expresses an underlying thought. Puzzles, commercial printing, construction materials, digital images, and other materials that happen to come her way are employed for this purpose. Photography is often present in both the process and the endpoint of a work, but she approaches it as a means equivalent to, for example, paint or clay. She also likes to push the boundaries between exhibition spaces and public space, investigating how the context in which a work is displayed and the reactions of random passersby contribute to the content of the work.

Because her practice starts from an everyday and recognizable visual language, it is initially readable to a broad audience. She strives for accessibility in her work by engaging viewers and building the content of her work in different layers. The first layer is usually very recognizable, and the viewer is free to discover the other layers. With this, she aims to make the viewer pay attention to beauty in our daily environment and expose absurd situations through humor.