Inside Deborah Levy’s Wunderkammer

“If there is one painting I yearn to hang on a rusty nail in my writing shed and stare at every day, it is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1943) by the American surrealist Dorothea Tanning. It features two girls, one with electrified hair, standing by a half-open door in a long corridor lined with a blood-red carpet. Meanwhile, a giant writhing sunflower is climbing the stairs.

For some reason this image always opens my mind and makes a space for something to happen in my own writing. As do the various feathers and stones I have collected on walks. I like to be surrounded by objects and art while I write my books. Sometimes a particular image becomes a sort of companion; it thinks with me in the long writing hours.”