August 7 – September 29, 2025
Noni Kaur, Ryan Kelln, and Chris Myhr
Curated by Gladys Lou
Opening Reception: Friday, August 22nd from 7–9PM
To see the world in a grain of sand is a multisensory exhibition that explores sand as a medium of communication, in an attempt to bridge the physical and the digital, the natural and the artificial, and the past and the future.
In Buddhist cosmology, every being is likened to a grain of sand—seemingly insignificant, yet essential to the infinite cycles of the universe. As both building blocks and residue, sand underpins human development, from construction and glass-making to silicon-based computing and digital infrastructure. How does the growing demand for sand in technology shape contemporary discourse on resource extraction, environmental degradation, and global inequality? And how might sand, like the hourglass, capture and reverse time?
Drawing inspiration from William Blake’s poem, Auguries of Innocence (1863), the exhibition reflects on how the smallest particles of matter encode vast cultural, ecological, and geopolitical significance.
About the Artists
Noni Kaur is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, and educator. Noni explores potentialities of expression, as a loom between cultures, through immersive, reactive, multi-sensory ephemeral installations that bridges the gaps between gender, culture, the body, and the non-human world. Kaur’s bold and sensuous canvases and ground sculptures stem from her heritage as a Singaporean woman of Punjabi heritage. Kaur’s works are an embodiment of her response to intersectional identity in communities and the construction of body prints and cell mapping on paper, stemming from her cultural history.
Kaur’s work has been featured in international venues across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including: the Havana Biennale, Cuba; the Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Fukuoka Triennale, Asian Art Museum, Japan; White Columns, New York; and the Henie Onstad Kunstenter, in Oslo, Norway. She is a full-time faculty member in the Arts Foundation and Visual & Digital Arts Programs at Humber College, Toronto.
Ryan Kelln (he/him) is a software artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, with over twenty years of experience spanning game and web development, interactive installations, and machine learning. A passionate advocate for open source and the Creative Commons, Kelln crafts art that celebrates themes of sharing, community, and creativity. His work is realized through ongoing projects that have evolved over 15 years, live performances with musicians and dancers, and installations featuring custom software and AI.
Kelln critically addresses technology while envisioning and advocating for inclusive, emancipatory systems. Beyond his artistic contributions, curation of generative art, and advocacy for art-making, his expertise in machine learning enables him to mentor emerging artists and educate the public through lectures and workshops.
Technical Assistance by Benjamin Lappalainen:
Benjamin Lappalainen is a Toronto-based creative technologist, educator, and multidisciplinary artist creating interactive installations that blur the boundaries between digital and physical experience. His work explores how emerging technologies can foster new forms of human connection and creative expression, often incorporating computer vision, AI, and algorithmic processes into innovative interaction design. He has recently stepped into the role of XR Development Lead at UKAI Projects, a non-profit cultural organization with the mission “culture for what’s coming”.
Music by Daria Morgacheva aka Garden of Magic:
Garden of Magic is a sonic world by Daria Morgacheva, where experimental electronics, ambient textures, and field recordings converge. Drawing from her background in physics and biology, she often returns to questions of nature and
technology.
Chris Myhr is a media artist based in Hamilton whose work deploys photography, video, sound, and media installation. Myhr’s studio practice seeks intersections between art, science, and ecology. For the past decade he has developed an extensive body of work that investigates the complex interrelationships between humans, nonhumans, water, and land. Projects have explored the floodplains of post-Touhoku Earthquake Tokyo; South Korea’s Nakdong and Han rivers; shipwreck sites off the coast of Nova Scotia; as well as hydrocarbon, methyl-mercury and plastic contamination in the Athabasca River (Alberta), the Great Lakes (Ontario), and the waters of the Canadian Arctic.
Myhr studied English literature at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver; Interdisciplinary Art at the University of Lethbridge; and completed graduate work at NSCAD University in Halifax. Myhr’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2021 his photographic portfolio was awarded the inaugural Prefix Prize.
About the Curator
Gladys Lou (she/they) is a Hong Kong-Canadian curator, writer, and artist currently pursuing an M.A. in Curatorial Studies at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in New York, with a B.A. in Art & Art History and Psychology from the University of Toronto and Sheridan College. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship with a placement at the University of Washington, where she studied Digital Arts and Experimental Media in 2022. Her research focuses on experimental media and new technology, including video, sound, and new media, to investigate and challenge the boundaries of sensory perception. She explores visual phenomena and shifting perceptions of light, colour, and space to create immersive, interactive experiences. Lou was selected as the IA Current Curator at InterAccess in 2023. She has held positions at Vtape, the Blackwood Gallery, Ontario Culture Days, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her critical writing has been published by ArtReview Asia, Impulse Magazine, and the AMP in New York,
as well as Public Parking, Studio Magazine, Femme Art Review, Ornamentum, PhotoED Magazine, Pleasure Dome, and Hamilton Artist Inc. in Canada.
About Factory Media Centre
Factory Media Centre is Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for film, video, new media, installation, sound art, and other multimedia art forms. Our mission is to develop and support a vibrant, sustainable, creative, and diverse community of Members and non-Members within Hamilton and its surrounding region.
Our gallery programming is made possible through funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the City of Hamilton and the Incite Foundation.