By Anju Singh
January 8 to March 30, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Material Transmissions is a machine-based sound sculpture that uses innate machine sounds and external sound sources infused back into the machine as sonic artifacts that are transmitted through transducers projected into a selection of found or hand made textile and industrial materials. This project is part of the MECHANICAL HYMNS project, a series of works developed by Anju Singh that explores the relationship between machines, industrial materials, and mechanical elements with sound, noise, and transmitted audio.
The artist's interest in these sounds began with her experience hearing hymns in temples as forms of music and then feeling there was a strong relationship between those drone sounds and machine noise, often droning and hypnotic in nature. She was curious about the acceptance of hymn-based drones while machine drones were considered purely noise, and this led her to better understand some underlying reasons for her aesthetic preference for noise-based textures that led her to become a noise artist. The MECHANICAL HYMNS series interrogates assumptions about the nature of noise, machine sounds, music, and mechanical silence.
Dissecting, interrogating, and experimenting with sound is a core aspect of Anju Singh's practice as a media artist, builder, sound artist, experimental music composer and video artist. Using industrial materials, space, volume and texture as main tools in her palette, she pushes extreme dynamics and unconventional sonic applications to build installations and compositions for immersive sonic experiences.
She views her practices as a series of experiments concentrating on the exploration of texture through sonic, tactile, and visual materials. Starting her practice as a sound and media artist, she began with experimental and extended techniques as a mulit-instrumentalist to draw out potential sonic textures from guitars, violins, and percussion instruments. Shortly after this led her to test and interrogate non-musical objects such as typewriters, metal objects, water, and industrial machines to learn about their sonic potential.
Anju has been building instruments, sound sculptures, and installations since 2005 and her work ranges from repurposing machines and objects into sound sculptures to building self-designed and self-built instruments and sound sculptures. Her sculptures and instruments contribute to the sonic materials that she composes with, often using her own found and built sounds as source sounds for her compositions, albums, film scores, and theatre scores for projects with various collaborators.
Anju has presented and performed her work across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and the United States in underground spaces, art centres, and through venues and arts festivals such as Fylkingen in Stockholm, Sweden; Send + Receive Festival in Winnipeg; Vancouver Jazz Festival; Polygon Gallery; Suoni per il Popolo Festival in Montreal; New Forms Festival; Initial Shock Festival; Music on Main's Modulus Festival and more. She has worked with/has been commissioned by New Music Concerts Toronto, Vancouver New Music, re:Naissance Opera, Canadian League of Composers, Bard on the Beach, CEM in Saguenay, and Continuum Ensemble.