Sculptor Jen Lewin showed Ursa Major and Ursa Minor at Burning Man.
Photo: Jen Lewin Studio
People crossing the Gowanus Canal will soon spot a glowing 30-foot-tall polar bear. Standing next to it will be a second mirror-encrusted 13-foot cub. This pair of sculptures is the work of Bushwick-based artist Jen Lewin, and they are set to live permanently on a new public parkway along the Superfund site.
New Yorkers who party on the Playa may recognize them. Lewin debuted the cub at Burning Man in 2022 but built him here using reams of recycled plastic left over from a project that reused ocean trash. She was depressed about climate change, the state of the world, everything. That’s Ursa Minor. Ursa Major, the 30-footer, came later — a mother for the cub. Larger, more inward-looking, and less joyful, it has a hollow structure that’s walled with mirrors etched with images of extinct species. The pieces withstood the elements at Black Rock and the occasional knock from a tech bro on a dirt bike. “I’m one of the few artists who use Burning Man like a research-and-development lab,” says Lewin. “If I can take a big piece out there and it survives, that’s a really good test.”
The works at Burning Man. Both bears glow at night, and Lewin will tune their colors to mesh with Gowanus. Jen Lewin Studio.
The works at Burning Man. Both bears glow at night, and Lewin will tune their colors to mesh with Gowanus. Jen Lewin Studio.
As for how they ended up in Gowanus, the 2021 rezoning incentivized developers to add public art, loosening the requirements for green space along the new public path. (One sculpture equals 100 square feet less of lawn, trees, or shrubs.) With 654 rental apartments, Nevins Landing, between Carroll and Union Streets, is one of the canal’s biggest new developments, and its developer, Sam Charney, is putting in a museum courtyard’s worth of public art, the result of an open call run by Arts Gowanus. In addition to Lewin’s bears, there will be a tiny house by Tom Fruin, a smiley figure by Austin Lee, and one of Adam Parker Smith’s eerie stone cupids. The story of the Ursas “resonated with me,” says Charney, who had already worked with Lewin on a light installation she built for his building in Long Island City and found the scale of the bears “sublime.”
Nevins Landing, to the left of the canal in this shot, has a public pathway where the bears will soon be a landmark.
Photo: Charney Companies
But people walking the canal might just see a photo op. At Burning Man, Lewin was surprised to see that some Burners didn’t seem too moved by the wall of death inside Ursa Major’s sanctum. Instead of quiet reflection, they posed for wedding photos. “That was not something I expected,” she says.
Contemplating extinction? Or posing for photos …
Photo: Jen Lewin Studio
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