Jason Roberts commissioned a polar bear to go outside his film production company’s entrance, along the main road through Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Me and my son Tom stayed during the summer with Jason for a little over a month while we created the polar bear. A fantastic experience and perhaps a return visit someday!
Photographs by Mark Conde.
Representations of polar bears are ubiquitous throughout Longyearbyen, starting upon your arrival at baggage claim where a taxidermic one scowls at your luggage from atop the carousel. A few blocks from the miner stands one of the more recent versions, a life-sized beast executed in stainless steel outside the office of filmmaker Jason Robert, who commissioned the work in 2011. Its overlapping sheaves of metal are vaguely heraldic, and evoke myth as much as reality.Nevada Museum of Art