Family of Man
Since the Calgary Herald story mentions the Family of Man, perhaps I should, too. Or, since they likely do a better job of it, let me quote this CBC Calgary article from 14 May 2016:
Since their installation in 1968 at the corner of 1st Street and 6th Avenue S.E., the looming figures — also known as The Family of Man — have become a landmark in the downtown and a minor tourist attraction in our city.
Love them or hate them, these sculptures, grouped like a family playing together, stand tall throughout the changing seasons.
They’re a symbol we associate with the city. They’re even the logo for the Calgary Board of Education.
But, Brotherhood of Mankind isn’t originally from here.
It was created by Spanish artist Mario Armengol as part of the British Pavilion for the Montreal Expo in 1967.
While it looks like a big happy family playing in the park, Calgary art curator Katherine Ylitalo says that’s by accident rather than design.
When the figures were first set up, the pieces weren’t in the circle formation we see today. Rather, they were spread out as part of an exhibit called Britain in the World.
The figures suggested the dominance of man and stood next to what the Brits determined were their “gifts” to the modern world — things like language, governmental systems, law and traditions.
After their Expo showing, Brotherhood of Mankind was bought at auction by a businessman and benefactor, who then donated it to the City of Calgary for tax purposes.
And so the figures were crated up and shipped here, where, Ylitalo says, they arrived on a truck and nobody had any directions about how to put them together.
So city staff were left to figure out how to set up the figures and ultimately chose the circle formation we know today.
“And now we even think that they relate to each other,” she says. “We think one is a female and has some sort of relationship with another. It was nothing the artist ever thought of. We’ve constructed this whole narrative.”
Shocked and appalled
While almost iconic now, there were a lot of critics when the sculptures were first unveiled.
“They’re naked. This was apparently a source of much anguish when it was originally installed. And people were shocked and appalled and thought it was disgraceful,” says Sarah Iley, the City of Calgary’s Manager of Culture.
But, as time passed and people became used to it, opinions changed.
“Our conservation people were cleaning it up this summer, washing down the bronze […] And we had a couple of pictures on our Facebook page, and people were commenting about how much they love it and they remember when their parents were mad when it came in.”
Since then, Brotherhood of Mankind has seen more than 40 years’ worth of changes in Calgary’s downtown core.
“There’s a real sense of attachment that people have grown up with that piece and it’s very much a part of the fabric of Calgary,” says Iley.
Kabuki and Sadko
The next piece I’ll share with you is one the young woman at the NMC told me was among her favorites. Certainly the pair are among the most colorful works I saw. The creation of Sorel Etrog, a Jewish Romanian sculptor who survived the Holocaust and now lives in Toronto, the works reflect his fascination with found objects. Kabuki and Sadko are designed to be representative of Japanese art and culture and were, according to a plaque mounted on Sadko, inspired by a display of nuts and bolts in a Canadian Tire store. It’s easy to see an overt sexuality in the work although, when asked about that aspect, Etrog is reported to have paraphrased Freud and answered, “Sometimes a pencil is just a pencil.” I’ll leave that determination to you. Sadko is red and his companion Kabuki is the acrylic yellow.
There are a handful of other works in this photos folder including the Space Cow that I went out of my way to see when I returned to the airport on my departure day. Lest you think I would take a walking sculpture tour of a place and not find a work like this – called Tribute to Land –
you have never accompanied me before. If there’s a turtle or turtles to be found, I’m almost certain to find it or them.
And with this, the story of the second of my 2017 western journeys comes to an end. I hope you’ve found it at turns amusing, educational, entertaining, and inspiring to your curiosity. Perhaps you’ve added your own research to one of my discussion points or, even better, I’ve stimulated your sense of adventure and you’re planning a trip of your own. Meanwhile, thanks for coming along with me this time and I hope you’ll return for my next travel tale whenever and wherever that might be.