Adra Kandil
About The Artist
“Nostalgia drives into our dreaming. Nostalgia is romantic, delicate yet loud. Like everything else, we take on light and color from outside ourselves and blend into one shade, together, as one. You’re the sky, not a cloud. I’m the cloud. I gather and dissipate, but you are always here. Leave a message for me if you can. Watch the lilac blossom. Listen to the scratches of the vinyl and then the music. Then dance on and remember. Remember every moment, every memory, every photograph, just remember.”
Adra Kandil is a female visual artist and communications designer known as Dear Nostalgia. Born in the autumn of 1993, and raised in Beirut, her artistic inclination began on a trip to Barcelona where she received her undergraduate degree in Creative Advertising & Branding at IED Barcelona, followed by a Master’s degree in Coolhunting, Design, and Global Trends from Elisava Barcelona.
Question
How did you get started with creating art?
It was a very organic, almost intuitive process. Living in Barcelona a few years ago I’d find myself holding my analogue camera and wandering the tiny alleyways taking photographs, which then turned to cutting up old magazines and then delving into digital collage. I think everyone is an artist, each searching for a medium to channel it.
Question
How would you describe your artistic style? Has it changed?
I create visual letters, based on conceptual narratives that are built on personal and collective emotions and relevant topics that break stigmas, spark social and political change in the MENA region, and romanticize better days using retro images, juxtaposed with pop-colors. Digital collage, merging the past, present, and future. It is ever-evolving as I am.
Question
Where do you usually find inspiration for your works?
As Jim Jarmusch once said, “devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows”. I cannot find a better description of what fuels my inspiration.
Question
What do you hope your audience will get from your work?
Moved. Inspired, or triggered, both are medicine. Both are some form of impact. Indifference is the only form of emotion or lack thereof that I hope my art won’t evoke.