This Spring, we partnered with acclaimed artist Paola Pivi and Polar Bears International for a limited edition capsule collection. Entering the whimsical world of Paola Pivi’s unique baby polar bear feathered sculptures, the capsule features an array of colourful Spring/Summer prints on elevated Canada Goose essentials.
Paola Pivi is best known for her contemporary multimedia work including sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance—with her most iconic artworks being the feathered polar bear sculptures. Her exhibition “We are the baby gang” was originally shown in 2019 at Perrotin in New York, and is an installation of 70 baby polar bears with sprouted florescent feathers who frolic, play, fight, nap and take over human mannerisms, seemingly adapting to global changes.
Together with Canada Goose, Paola Pivi developed a camo print featuring vibrant bears intertwined, which can be seen throughout the collection. From vests to fleece, the pieces are designed to layer—to live in the open with nature and ready to explore urban environments. Read on to hear directly from the artist herself about the inspirations behind her work and the process of creating this collection.
This is a collection that leverages colour in a way we haven’t seen before with a Canada Goose collaboration. Your baby polar bears sculptures obviously influenced the palette—but what was your approach when translating what works for art into apparel?
I approached the collection as I approach every artwork, with the wish to explore and live to the fullest in any opportunity. We drew from my art titled “We are the baby gang” the strongest poses and colors of baby bears and started from there, and then I played with juxtaposing the various details and textures that are so precious in Canada Goose creations. The rest followed naturally, I think the energy can be felt.
You were born in Italy and have exhibited internationally, from Australia to Japan, Germany to Sweden—yet Alaska in the United States has captured your heart and is your home base. Tell us about what the wild, untamed “last frontier” of Alaska means to you?
Living in Alaska makes you feel the planet under your feet. It is unbeatable. Also very hard at times, but always fascinating. I like to live with beauty plastered onto my eyes.
Polar bears are in your art—and they’re outside your front door. What about them draws you in?
Technically not the polar bears, but only the other ones are at my door: brown, black and probably grizzly, or, actually, hopefully not, hopefully they are not at my door! Let’s say they pass by and terrify me.
What can we as humans learn from polar bears? Why was it important for you to join this collaboration that partners with Polar Bears International?
A large white polar bear is a magnificent vision to admire. In recent and not so recent years we have seen the polar bears suffer and show that suffering before the others. Every human being is connected to nature and to the bears. I discovered Polar Bears International thanks to Canada Goose and now I will be an avid follower and supporter of their activities and discoveries.
Photography by Attilio Maranzano
Courtesy Perrotin and the Artist
Your art makes the impossible seem possible—and this is a skill that all of those who push the limits and inspire us have, from physical feats of extreme exploration and adventure to creating a whimsical world that shifts your point of view. Any advice do you have for someone who wants to step outside of their comfort zone and create or do something bigger than themselves?
We have only one life. As long as you do not step onto others’ freedoms, use yours to the maximum chance. You have nothing to loose and all to gain. Any step you wish to take, even if it is only an inch, can be big and a milestone, if it is meaningful for you. Society, and most of the other people, will not push you forward, actually, quite the opposite. The first step is to acknowledge freedom of thought, and then focus on it, all the rest follows.
What does Live in the Open mean to you—in your life, or your work?
Now at this stage my life is very busy, I try to go out at least one hour a day in a beautiful place and feel the connection with Alaska. Last year I was cross country skiing on average two hours a day, that was way more optimal.
We’ve heard that your first encounter with Canada Goose was a parka you wore to watch the Iditarod. Please, tell us more!
In 2005 I travelled to Alaska to follow the Iditarod race, the epic sled dog race 1000 miles long across rural Alaska from Anchorage to Nome. I pretended to be a photo-journalist, I followed the entire race from check point to checkpoint, and also in between checkpoints in the wild. I had hired a pilot who flew a tiny Super Cub, we could land everywhere. I was an Italian stepping into thin ice, in order to survive I asked for help, and my helper (the pilot) directed me to purchase my first Canada Goose parka, because, I could have slept in it if our plane could not fly for any reason, even in the open, even in winter, even in Alaska. I completely fell in love with that jacket, its smell, feel and strength and especially its pockets, it has a strong coziness.
Lastly, what is next for Paola Pivi?
I will present my sculpture Milano at the designer furniture store Moroso in New York, which commissioned Milano within their project More-so on March 2.
I will open a large solo show in Marseille at the museum Mac on March 23, for the reopening of the museum after being closed for years for extensive architectural renovations.
I will unveil “All In”, the special edition artwork-box of my catalogue “Paola Pivi” published by Phaidon in New York on April 4, on the occasion of the finissage of my public artwork “You know who I am” which was on display for one year on the High Line in New York.
With a shared passion for raising awareness of the threats that polar bears and their Arctic habitats face, a portion of every sale from the Canada Goose x Paola Pivi x Polar Bears International Collection will be donated to support PBI and their efforts to preserve Polar Bear welfare. See the full collection here.
