Longview by Don Kennell stood in the Railyard Park from June 12 – September 13, 2019.

Don Kennell’s “Longview,” a 35-foot tall polar bear made from car hoods, was unveiled during the second annual Interplanetary Festival in the Railyard Park thanks to Santa Fe Institute. The sculpture was built with support from Burning Man Project and debuted in 2018 in Nevada’s Black Rock City. Since then it was in San Francisco, Toronto and finally back home in Santa Fe.

The title “Long View” refers to the upright stance, the typical posture for the polar bear searching for food by scanning their surroundings. For the artist, this pose and the sculpture’s materiality of the car hoods serves as a metaphor for what humans need to do about climate change. While in the Park, “Longview” served as a conversation piece and a landmark representative of the creative prowess that exists in Santa Fe.