Surrey art gallery urban screen

Commissioned Film by FORM in Partnership with Surrey Art Gallery (SAG) as part of SAG’s Kinesthesia fall exhibition series

September 25, 2025 - January 4, 2026 | Screening select weeks daily after sunset, ending at midnight

Location: UrbanScreen | Surrey Civic Plaza 13750 88 Ave, Surrey, BC V3W 3L1

Nestled in the heart of Surrey lies Surrey Art Gallery’s UrbanScreen, a large scale digital screen located outside where movement meets architecture, digital meets physical, and personal meets collective. As SAG celebrates its 50th anniversary and FORM marks its 10th year, this collaboration offers the unique opportunity to reflect on the ways movement shapes and is informed by our legacies, identities, and landscapes.

These hands are still at work brings together longtime artistic collaborators of FORM, new media artist Nancy Lee and choreographer, dancer, and actor Simran Sachar. In their project, migration manifests as an ancient, genetic, rhythmic response for survival. For the artists, migration is movement, movement is change, and change is the only constant. In These hands are still at work, the rhythm of movement becomes the rhythm of labour. The mundane labour of someone else’s life forms the foundation of our leisure. Nancy and Simran introduce to you Lauren and Nova, two AI assistants who are changing the patterns of migration.

Director, Editor, Designer: Nancy Lee

Director, Choreographer, Actor: Simran Sachar

VFX: Ian Nakamoto

Production Assistant, Grip, and BTS documentation: Alger Liang

Make-Up Artist and Hair: Sophia Sosa


To learn more about UrbanScreen and These hands are still at work visit surrey.ca/urbanscreen

 

About the Artists:

Featured
Nancy Lee
Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee 李南屏 is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, DJ, curator, and cultural producer whose work spans XR, installation, A/V performance, and documentary. A Sundance New Frontier alum, their projects—such as Tidal Traces, UNION, and Woven Memory: Copper Bodies—explore embodiment, memory, and diaspora through expanded media. Their work has been shown at Cannes, SXSW, MUTEK, VIFF, and Centre Phi. They are a co-founder of CURRENT and Chapel Sound Art Foundation, and teaches immersive media at IM4 Lab. They serve as a board director for Love Intersections and Normie Corp, uplifting queer voices in media arts and music. They are committed to equity in the arts, supporting queer and underrepresented artists through mentorship, community consultation, and cross-genre programming in Vancouver.

Photo by Chieh Huang

Simran Sachar
Simran Sachar

Simran Sachar is a choreographer, dance artist, director, teacher, writer, and actor currently dedicating time to their artistic practice on the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. 

She is a captivating anomaly in this industry known for her work as a contemporary and street dance artist and choreographer. As a performer she’s contributed her skills in various film, television, theatre productions, and Canadian dance companies, as well as the street dance scene where she’s known for her exceptional abilities as a freestyle dancer, strong storytelling skills and fluid precision. As a choreographer, Sachar’s work uncovers functions inside wh/aacking, distorted memories and how they disfigure us, and the duality of relief and grief.

Most recently, Sachar co-choreographed with Justine A. Chambers on a newly commissioned dance work which premiered on July 5th, 2025 at Indian Summer Festival to a sold out audience. Sachar’s work, ‘ACT TWENTY FIVE’ premiered in June 2024 at Dancing On The Edge Festival and at Dance In Vancouver. Her latest XR film “The Edge of The Underworld,”premiered in September 2024. Her first XR film, BETA बेटा was presented at Luna Arts Festival 2021. In 2020, her first film ‘LUNACY’ was a part of National Arts Centre's CAPSULE and premiered at F.O.R.M Film Festival and won the Official Selection of the Audience Choice Award.

Photo by Marshall To