By Don Kennell

A 35-foot tall polar bear made from car hoods, Longview was unveiled during the Santa Fe Institute’s second annual Interplanetary Festival in the Railyard Park. The sculpture was built with support from Burning Man Project, and debuted in 2018 in Nevada’s Black Rock City, with additional exhibitions in San Francisco, Toronto before returning tp Santa Fe.

The title refers to the bear’s upright stance, the typical posture for searching for food by scanning its surroundings. For the artist, this pose and the sculpture’s materiality of the car hoods served 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.