In January of 2024 artist Anthony Cervino visited Longyearbyen on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to attend an artist residency hosted by the Spitsbergen Kunstnersenter. During this first visit Cervino was able to immerse himself in the natural landscape and welcoming community of one of the northernmost permanent settlements in the world. Located at 78° degrees north of the equator, or about 800 miles from the North Pole, scientists, anthropologist, economists, and even artists have a great interest in Svalbard as a harbinger of the environmental and geopolitical impact of rapid climate change. Here Cervino embraced the cold weather, harsh terrain, threats of polar bears encroaching on town, and the pitch black of the polar nights - the period during the year when the High Arctic is plunged into 24-hour darkness – as critical influences for the artworks that he would make when he returned home. Later that same year he returned to Svalbard to complete his residency and to install an exhibition of the work inspired by his initial visit. This site-specific work was installed under the collective title, When You Wish You Were Here.
Inspired by travel souvenirs and Norwegian crafts items, Cervino assembled this series of found and made objects that intertwine his personal journey with Svalbard’s larger cultural and natural landscape. For example, two works presented were made as homage to similar art objects by 20th-century Norwegian designer Arne Tjomsland. Cervino’s cast bronze sculpture, Polar Bear Looking Back and his wooden toy-like Climate Scientist (with Ice Core Drill) borrow from Tjomsland’s popular stylized forms while updating the theme of these souvenirs to reflect Svalbard as a site for climate research and science tourism.
Other works on display similarly engage with how we commemorate travel and honor places that may be transforming or disappearing due to climate change. Cervino investigates this theme broadly through artworks that reference the hard-to-photograph Aurora Borealis, a popular Arctic phenomenon (When You Wish), a series of post cards featuring displaced taxidermied Polar Bears (Wish You Were Here), and even a custom embroidered patch (I Turned Back) that Cervino designed as an expression of the personal growth he experienced during his visit to Svalbard. During his residency Cervino distributed 400 of these patches as a souvenir for those who were also compelled to visit this remote but significant destination.