poodle soup – Curated by Komal Lally
OPENING RECEPTION
Wednesday, November 4th
InterAccess, 7–9PM
w/ clown performance by JOY PROVISION
Alternative Controllers Workshop presented by machines of play (led by Stormy and artist Shihab Mian)
Thursday, November 19th,
InterAccess, 6PM–8PM
More info
Artist Q&A (Closing Reception)
Saturday, December 5,
InterAccess, 3PM– 5PM
More info
GALLERY HOURS
November 4th – December 5th, 2026
Tuesday - Saturday, 11 – 6PM
InterAccess is pleased to present the 25th Annual IA Current Exhibition, poodle soup, curated by Komal Lally.
Featuring work by James Rollo, Mad Holl, Perspekt Collective, Shihab Mian, and Yusuf Shamma, poodle soup explores absurdism and how we can bring play into our current worldviews, welcoming life's illogical nature.
Drawing on Bernard Suits's idea of play as the redirection of useful resources toward activities valuable only in themselves, this group exhibition looks at artists who redirect technology into nonsensical ways of creation, collectively making play a conscious act, encouraging oddity and openness over consumption, with intention to experiment without reason. Thinking about irony, cyclical living, and perceived “uselessness”, Lally invites us to embrace an impulse that we’ve had since childhood, nurturing whatever instincts may surface as a way of navigating life in spite of it all.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Komal Lally is an emerging interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Tkaronto.
Her artistic practice is material focused, valuing experimentation and exploration. Currently, she is interested in working (or fighting) with light materials, like paper and fabric, to create immersive environments. In her curatorial work, she aims to uplift the idea that technology should be for everyone through well-meant nonsense and irony. Encouraging curiosity and creation over credentialism, she wants to make room to play. Lally aims to create ongoing spaces of encounter, dedicated to working with and in service of artists, creating works that feel honest, responsive, and warm.
Lally has a BFA in New Media from Toronto Metropolitan University, where she co-founded and led NEXT (New Media Exhibition Team), her program's first curatorial collective, leading her to oversee her thesis exhibition, METAMORPHOSIS. She founded machines of, an artist collective dedicated to uplifting and creating new media art, with which she organized synthesis, an interactive art installation funded by the Creative School in 2024, and co-curated a group garage show, Residua and Remnants in July of 2025. Most recently, she independently curated i see myself and no one in millions of other systems, a new media group exhibition at Little Robot Friends. Her artwork has shown with the Art Gallery of Ontario's Art Bash and Nuit Blanche Toronto. She is eager to continue bringing a DIY ethos and passion for strange art into every single thing she does.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
James Rollo
James Rollo is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose practice explores how objects and spaces can be pushed through a queer re-interpretation. The resulting modifications of these objects and spaces defamiliarise them, resulting in humorous anti-objects, visual glitches, and experiential anomalies. The material they most often use in their practice are people’s expectations, with the aim to playfully subvert them through a queer framework.
These queered objects and spaces have recently been exhibited at Hearth, Toronto, Canada (2026), hARTslane, London, UK (2026), YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto, Canada (2025), Co-MMotion International Media Art Festa, AZIT Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2025), the plumb, Toronto, Canada (2024), and Casa da Dona Laura, Lisbon, Portugal (2024). They have participated in The Wrong Epicentre Biennale, Centre del Carme, Valencia, Spain (2019), the 23rd International Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Gabrovo, Bulgaria (2017), and in the Images Festival, Xpace, Toronto, Canada (2015).
Mad Holl
As a New Media artist, Mad Holl embraces a label that resists rigid definition, finding beauty in its inherent flexibility. Driven by curiosity, Mad explores the intersection of art, technology and the natural world, drawing connections between organic processes and the systems we build. Their practice spans interactive installation, video art, experimental animation and metalworking, constantly evolving through experimentation with new techniques, materials and technologies. Across these mediums, Mad is interested in how we perceive and relate to the world around us.
Perspekt Collective
Perspekt Collective is a Canadian art collective that creates interactive and dynamic installations that reflect on our relationships to the environment, technology, and community. Through collaborations with interdisciplinary artists working across mediums including industrial sculpture, electronics, digital animation, creative coding, and painting/illustration, the collective creates works that are in perpetual transformation. Perspekt Collective has shown works in Ontario at Nuit Blanche, Sideburn, and Bloom Festival.
L Morris is a queer and neurodivergent painter, kinetic sculptor, and new media artist based out of Toronto. Their installations explore the relationality between nature, technology, and our bodies/emotions using scientific imagery and interactivity. Morris has shown works at arts institutions and festivals across Canada including Nuit Blanche, The Gallery at Casa, Ukai Projects, Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, Sideburn, and Bloom Festival. They have a BSc in Neuroscience with a Minor in Studio Art from the University of Lethbridge and a MA in Communication & Cultural Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Amir Ahanchian is a Toronto-based chemist, fabricator, and emerging new media artist working primarily with kinetic sculpture and interactive installation. Drawing on a background in science, hands-on fabrication, and a lifelong interest in making, his practice explores material, movement, technology, and connections to his Persian heritage. He collaborates with Perspekt Collective to develop large-scale interactive works, with recent projects presented at Sideburn and Bloom Festival.
Benjamin Lappalainen is a Toronto-based creative technologist, artist, and educator whose practice spans interactive installations, kinetic sculpture, and creative code. He interrogates and misuses technologies like computer vision and machine learning to expose their limits, breaking points, and creative potential. He has taught and exhibited at institutions including InterAccess, OCAD University, and the Centre For Art Tapes, and currently serves as XR Development Lead with UKAI Projects (cultural research & development) and co-lead of soft_launch (creative technology workshops and intensives).
Shihab Mian
Shihab Mian is a game developer, webweaver & creative technologist working primarily with creative programming & game engines. In his practice, Shihab looks to deconstruct this relation between technology and humanity. He examines how this relationship has been distorted, disfigured, and transformed by rapid technological advancement. He creates deprecated programs and intentional failings, where inefficiency, glitch, or error are embraced as part of the creative process. He holds a BFA in New Media from Toronto Metropolitan University, where he is currently a CUPE lecturer teaching game engines. Shihab has exhibited & performed works at InterAccess, The Garrison, Confederation Centre of the Arts, The Centre for Art Tapes and The Art Gallery of Guelph. He has also been artist in residence at The Music Gallery, Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts & Heckhole Studios.
Yusuf Shamma
Yusuf Shamma is a mechanical, automation, and industrial systems and controls engineer based in Chicago, Illinois. He holds an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the founder of two unincorporated businesses; Silicon Polymer Solutions and TICL Electronics. He also co-founded the world renowned unincorporated BERM Industries, whose product was exhibited at the 2026 Ars Electronica Festival. He also claims to hold multiple IEEE publications.
Joy Provision
Presented by your favourite queer-led comedy collective Joy Provision, creating absurd, heartfelt, and socially charged comedy that celebrates community, care, and chaos. Born out of creative necessity during the pandemic, now a full-blown troupe touring across North America! Featuring Rena Taylor and Ethan Resendes.