Calgary sculpture never meant to be Indigenous: mayor and Treaty 7 chiefs
Calgary’s mayor and seven chiefs in southern Alberta say a controversial sculpture along a city interchange was never meant to be Indigenous art.
Naheed Nenshi and Treaty 7 leaders have released a joint statement about the Bowfort Towers sculpture, which some critics say appears to emulate Indigenous burial scaffolding.
The steel-and-rock sculpture by New York artist Del Geist was commissioned under Calgary’s public art policy for about $500,000.
The statement says the request for proposals didn’t ask for the art to incorporate Indigenous themes, but that the city asked Geist to seek advice of a Treaty 7 traditional knowledge-keeper late in the design process.