Sanda Anderlon's collages explore the lost art of celebrating New Year's Eve

Inspired by the fact that family members mix so rarely during these days during the holidays – even without taking the pandemic into account – Sanda thought it was such a shame that it warranted fixing via her collage artwork. By taking cutouts of grandparents, young children, and everyone in between, Sanda wanted to replicate the sort of New Year's Eve festivities we're sorely missing.

"From my grandfather's experience, I know that in some nursing homes they didn't even celebrate New Year, which saddened me and made me want to envision an ideal version," she tells Creative Boom. "It puts things into perspective when you are surrounded by different age groups."

Spread across three rooms, including a living room and a dining area, these collages depict a large gathering where everyone is invited. "It's a bring your folks and grandparents kind of party." She's not exaggerating either. In one room, young children practice the important holiday activities of watching movies and raiding the fridge. At the same time, in another, there is a group of unfazed girls, "each doing her own chill thing as if it were a regular Sunday, but enjoying togetherness."

Depending on where you live and who you want to meet up with, the possibility of celebrating so socially on New Year's Eve is an impossibility. Restrictions, precautions and shielding are still sadly a part of our day-to-day lives after all. However, with the medium of collage, Sanda can outwit Omicron by bringing people together on the page.

"Each room is made out of hundreds of different pieces to set the tone and give depth to the characters," adds Sanda. We particularly like the little embellishments, such as the faces of specific individuals being swapped out for an illustration, a cat ready to pounce all over a board game, and fantastical touches like a meteor heading towards the planet.

New Year's Eve parties can be frantic, dizzying occasions, and nothing quite captures the heady madness of the celebrations quite as accurately as these jumbled collages. Although we suspect pictures depicting the morning after would be a bit more sedate and contain a lot of fried breakfasts and ibuprofen.