South Gallery + GATHER⋮PLACE
TEXADA
Josephine Anderson + Claire Sanford
Virtual Reality Experience (runs FIVE times per day — click here for showtimes) + Immersive Installation + Interactive Station:
How big is time?
On the remote Canadian island of Texada, the everyday stuff of human existence — work, play and dreams — is juxtaposed against the tectonic shifts of the planet, rising and falling in cyclical patterns of creation, extinction and renewal.
In this impressionistic VR project, co-directors Claire Sanford and Josephine Anderson merge 360-degree live-action footage, captured across the island, with 3D animation of geologic upheaval to create an immersive, poetic experience. A chorus of residents’ voices ebbs and flows, unravelling the complexities of the surrounding limestone that is central to the community and economy of the island. Present in everything from toothpaste to the great Pyramids of Egypt, this humble yet ubiquitous rock is a critical element in the construction of our modern society.
Texada is about rocks, people and time — the head-spinning vastness of terrestrial epochs contrasted with the immediacy of day-to-day human experience. Real and imagined landscapes document a journey from the Earth’s formation to the current moment: twinned streams of existence mixing and mingling in an ever-changing flow. As geologic forces continue to unfold, the only constant is transformation. Yet amongst the great heave of history, glimpses of temporal beauty, like discovering beautiful stones on a beach, help us understand our place in the universe.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As artists, we are both deeply driven by a fascination with crafting stories rooted in the real world, a passion that has led us to a focus on documentary storytelling. Over the course of our careers, we have continually gravitated toward pushing the boundaries of the documentary form, seeking new ways to experiment, take risks, and challenge the limits of our craft.
When a serendipitous meeting brought us together, the connection between us as creative collaborators was immediate and undeniable, though the specific project we would embark upon was yet to be defined. What united us from the start was a shared desire to explore uncharted territories. As collaborators we have played many roles – co-directors, co-writers, and director/cinematographer – yet each role has been inextricably intertwined with the other, reflecting our deep commitment to collaborative process.
As we moved forward with a project that would reflect our evolving creative partnership, we found ourselves captivated by big, philosophical questions that have guided us throughout our lives: How do we define meaning through the way we spend our time and the work we do? What are the connections we form with the places we inhabit, and how are they expressed? What influences the memories we create and hold onto? How do we grapple with our place in the universe?
At the same time, we became captivated by emerging technologies, particularly the potential of 360-degree filmmaking. As we dove into experimentation, we found that the immersive nature of the medium aligned perfectly with the big questions we sought to address. The challenge of working with 360-degree film became an opportunity to craft a narrative that was both expansive and intimate, giving us the space to reflect on time, memory, and place through the lens of a technology that was still evolving and uncharted.
This exploration led us to Texada, an impressionistic virtual reality experience that merges 360-degree live-action footage of the island with 3D animation to explore geologic transformation. The result is a poetic and immersive journey that spans hundreds of millions of years, through grand cycles of extinction and renewal. At the same time, it is deeply rooted in the present, on the island of Texada where limestone, a remarkable and ancient material, is mined.
Limestone, once composed of the bodies and bones of ancient life, forms over millions of years. It is an enduring record of the past, and today it plays an integral role in the modern world, from the concrete that shapes our cities to the fertilizers, glass, rubber, paint, and even toothpaste we use in our daily lives. In creating Texada, we came to realize that limestone is not just a building block of society, but an archivist of human information. When given space to tell its own story, limestone holds memories, histories, and deep narratives – both geological and human. Our goal was to give this material a voice, to allow it to come alive in its own right.
In Texada, we have sought to explore the intersection of time, place, and memory through the lens of a landscape shaped by both natural forces and human intervention. The project is a meditation on the forces that shape us, from the geological to the personal, and an invitation to reflect on the ways in which we define meaning in our lives.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Josephine Anderson (Co-creator):
Josephine Anderson is a documentary filmmaker who works across linear and immersive modes to address themes like time, irreverence, yearning, and female experience. Her films are intimate, sensorial, and imaginative. Josephine’s work has been shown at festivals worldwide including Tribeca, IDFA, Hot Docs and RIDM, and has been exhibited by The New Yorker Documentary, CBC, Canada Council for the Arts, and the National Film Board of Canada. Her first feature documentary, Curl Power, world premiered at Hot Docs (2024) where it was nominated for Best Documentary Feature, and has received theatrical distribution in over 70 cinemas across Canada.
Josephine holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of British Columbia, and is a graduate of Capilano University’s Documentary program, where she was honoured with the One to Watch alumni award. She has been nominated for a Leo Award and a Canadian Screen Award. She is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, and the Documentary Organization of Canada. She lives and works on Bowen Island.
Claire Sanford (Co-creator):
Claire Sanford is a Montreal-based cinematographer, documentary filmmaker and immersive artist with a focus on stories exploring the natural world, human identity, and how they overlap. Originally from a small island on the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada, Claire grew up immersed in nature and became versed in the quiet art of observation. Her work employs visceral cinematography, evocative ambisonic soundscapes and non-traditional narratives, exploring the interplay of our senses and our memories in the creation of story. Projects directed and lensed by Claire have been exhibited and garnered awards at film festivals, theatres and galleries internationally.
Claire holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, and has participated in professional development programs such as the Hot Docs Accelerator Program, the Union Docs Summer Labs Fellowship, the Redford Centre Environmental Storytelling Grant, and the Canadian Film Centre Cinematography Intensive. She is a two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee and associate member of the Canadian Society for Cinematographers.
Texada is presented now at CVAG as part of the convergent program Immersed • RETURN TO WATER 2025, which marks the gallery’s fifth year of inviting visitors to programming and community activations that explore the enduring relationship we have with this watery region.
In 2020, the artists visited CVAG to undertake a research and development residency, Rock People, to work on the footage that has culminated in Texada.
