UNINTERRUPTED (2017) Flythrough projection and Director/Collaborators Discussion

UninterruptedVR

virtual reality, 24 mins , 2021

Screening begins at 3:00PM

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NOTE:  Be sure to experience UninterruptedVR in 3D on headsets in the gallery throughout the exhibition. Then join us at 3pm, March 28th for a group session including a 2D portrayal of UninterruptedVR and an opportunity to meet the artists who created the work.

Enter a space where the heart of a river meets the heart of the city....on a bridge where surprising images, both surreal and very real, mingle to reveal a story older than time.   

UninterruptedVR is a visual poem that unfolds in virtual reality. It interprets the homeward journey of Pacific salmon, heading upstream to perpetuate an ancient cycle of life, death and life again.  Salmon face huge challenges as they return to their home waters - and human encroachment, including climate change, is now chief among them.  Yet the cycle remains uninterrupted to this day. 

Years in the making, the twenty-four minute experience was filmed underwater in three BC rivers and then set to an evocative original score. There is no narration. The only voice is the occasional whisper of noted Secwepemc elder Dr. Mary Thomas, speaking in her Indigenous language - an acknowledgement of the First Peoples as the original stewards of salmon. 

UninterruptedVR evolved from a site-specific work, developed for projection across the almost one-kilometre undercarriage of Vancouver’s Cambie Bridge. Presented in 2017, it ran nightly through the summer to audiences that totalled more than 30,000. and was selected by the international art magazine Wallpaper* as one of the world's top outdoor art installations that year. 

Joining director Nettie Wild for the post screening discussion will be fellow collaborators:  editor Michael Brockington, producers Betsy Carson and Rae Hull, director of photography Athan Merrick, and composer Owen Belton. 

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“The most amazing 24 minutes I’ve ever spent.” 

Stephen Quinn, Early Edition, CBC-Radio Canada.

“Its become one of the hottest tickets in town.”  

Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail.

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Awards

Best Cinematography (Athan Merrick) in Unique/Experimental category, Canadian Society of Cinematographers

Exhibitions

Comox Valley Art Gallery, 2025

Kaohsiung Film Archive and VR lab, Taiwan, 2023

Fraser River Discovery Centre, 2023

Metro Vancouver launch - summer tour 2021:  Museum of Vancouver, Burnaby Art Gallery, North Van Waterfront Park, šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn (formerly known as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza)

BC interior, Fall tour 2022

Salmon Arm Art Gallery, 2021

Capilano University, 2023

Metro Vancouver Schools Exhibition, 2023