Immersed • RETURN TO WATER 2025
IMMERSED • RETURN TO WATER 2025
Immersed • RETURN TO WATER 2025 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.
Artists working in alternative lens-based practices tell the story of the geological and ecological deep time of this watery world. Time capture imagery, interactive installations, animation, sound design, video, and 3D virtual reality immerse the viewer in sensorial encounters.
Texada — Claire Sanford + Josephine Anderson | VR Experience + Installation + Sound Design
Time is huge, and it just keeps slipping into the future. An island rises from the ocean, and its inhabitants go about their life’s work — blasting, hauling, and shipping the rock on which they live. Framed as an immersive portrait of a tiny oceanic enclave called Texada Island, this work explores the elasticity of time, and the nature of how we spend ours.
Uninterrupted-VR — Nettie Wild + Betsy Carson + Rae Hull | VR Experience + Installation + Sound Design
Uninterrupted-VR immerses viewers in a spectacle that combines art, technology and nature. At the heart of the experience is a journey that has been repeated uninterrupted in BC waters since before recorded time… silver Sockeye turning to crimson as the salmon returned to their freshwater birthplace to spawn, repeating a cycle that has nourished land, water, animals, and people for millions of years.
ChronoScapes • Pinhole Camera Project — Sarah Crawley + Community Participants | LED Screenings + Printed Imagery + Installation
A slow-technology process of creating photographs using a pinhole camera and exposure periods measured in days and months — from solstice to solstice. The project saw 100 cameras situated throughout the valley — in a special spot chosen by each individual taking part in the project.
RELATED EVENTS
Art Opening with Artist Talks | 1:00pm on Saturday, April 12
VR Workshop with Claire Sanford + Josephine Anderson | Monday, April 14 (details TBA)
Water Ways – Comox Valley Gallery Hop | April 12 – April 30
Source Encounters in the Comox Lake Watershed | CVRD Connected By Water Facilitators (details TBA)
Arts-based Activations + Make Stations | April 12 – May 24
Throughout the convergent program, CVAG is inviting the community to participate by offering creative responses that reflect the past, assert the present, and envision the future in which a healthy relationship with our watery world is restored.
The Comox Valley Art Gallery is committed to creating safer spaces where everyone can participate.
All ages are welcome.
CVAG spaces are accessible.
Programs are barrier-free (no cost). DONATIONS are appreciated and contribute to ongoing community interactive programming.
PUBLIC HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS: we ask that visitors choose not to visit if they are experiencing symptoms of colds and flus.
Hand sanitation dispensers are available at CVAG. Wearing a mask is at the discretion of the visitor.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Comox Valley Art Gallery is grateful to operate on the Unceded Traditional Territory of the K’ómoks First Nations.
This program is made possible through the support of our FUNDERS: City of Courtenay, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Government of Canada, Province of BC, Comox Valley Regional District, Town of Comox | SUPPORT: ABC Printing, Hitec Screen Printing, SD71 Printshop, Shine-Eze Ltd, Paintbox Painting.
FEATURED IMAGE: from David Lawson.