REGINA – Whether animal-rights activists or vandals on a lark, the people who defaced three bronze cattle outside a Regina art gallery are receiving intense condemnation.
“Everyone feels violated,” said Sarah Spafford, conservator at the Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery.
During the Christmas holidays, someone sprayed white paint on the bronze animals, which sit on a grass plot outside the gallery on a main street in Regina.
The bull sculpture, named Potter, had the word “beef” painted on it. Valedon the cow bore the words “Big Mac” and Teevo the calf was marked with a large “M.” The latter two markings appear to refer to the McDonald’s fast food chain.
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“No one called” to take responsibility, said Spafford, so she doubts the defacement is a political statement.
But while the meaning may be unclear, the reaction locally has been overwhelming, according to Spafford.
Hundreds of calls flooded the gallery, and it decided the job of restoring the sculptures couldn’t wait until spring. Spafford and gallery volunteers have been working outside in frigid conditions, under plastic sheets, to remove the paint.
Spafford said she expects that after the restoration, no one should be able to tell the sculptures were marked.
The bronze cattle were designed by Regina artist Joe Fafard. His celebrations of agricultural life, especially cows, have made him internationally famous.
A life-sized cow lies on the main floor of a Regina downtown office tower. As well, in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, in front of a towering bank complex, there sits a small herd of Fafard’s cattle.
