Metro 23 | Half-tales from a moving train explores the intersection of the stories of people. The multimedia art exhibition is a collection of Ghadah Alkandari’s moments over the past six months of living in Cairo. The exhibition takes place in Access Art Space. It had its opening night on the 11th of November and is running until the 2nd of December.
Around The Exhibition
The Kuwaiti artist divided the art exhibition into immersive rooms that flow together to tell a compelling story. Alkandari has a distinct style with sharp and abstract facial features juxtaposed by cheerful bright colors and patterns.
Also, Alkandari uses different mediums that are unique and interesting. Metro 23 | Half-tales from a moving train exhibition ranges from large-scale painting to smaller and more intimate ink drawings, mainly featuring her character Eve, that focus on the triteness of everyday life. In these artworks, Alkandari adds beautiful pieces of poetry, which could be interpreted in several ways.
Alkandari opens her heart for the audience to enter and explore her inner thoughts and feelings. She dedicates her art to the people of Palestine by adding a keffiyeh ribbon to her portraits of Egyptian Women. She courageously abandoned all familiar forms and immersed herself in the unusual. In fact, one of the main pieces features a collage of the mundane things in life, such as the AC dripping, and turns them into a beautiful reflection.
The Unique Pieces
In addition to all of the astonishing painted pieces, Alkandari added a documentary that tells the making of the art pieces. The first piece started as a mural on the wall, but the wall had to be taken down. She took this tumble and turned it into a golden opportunity. She took the broken pieces of the wall and arranged them to look like flying ashes. This reflects the imagery of fleeting moments. She added a painted door and a large piece of a broken wall with the electric cords sticking out.
One of the installations in Metro 23 | Half-tales from a moving train is a wall of sketchbooks filled with Alkandari paintings. Each one is dedicated to one of the metro stations that she takes into the city. The visitors are encouraged to interact with it and flip through the pages. As you flip through the pages, you are transported into her world. For instance, “Every Palestinian killed is a while universe gone” is one of the many heart-wrenching pieces in the sketchbooks.
Alkandari put her inner thoughts and feelings on display for visitors by offering her leather-bound journals on display. As you flip through them, you get to know Alkandari intimately. Mixing drawings, poetry, and journal entries gives a sense of intimate connection between the artist and the reader.
To summarise, Life is a collection of fleeting moments that intertwine and cross to create a beautiful web of stories. Alkandari grabs onto these moments and those fleeting relationships, and tries to puzzle together the pieces she knows and fills the missing pieces.