EDMONTON, CANADA, September 22, 2007: Four statues of Lord Ganesha, including one depicting the elephant-god in the nude, are being removed from an exhibition in the Canadian city of Edmonton after protests by Hindus who called them “disrespectful.” Ryan McCourt’s sculptures, which have been on display for 10 months, were put up at the Shaw Conference Centre under a corporate-municipal-non-profit partnership program. A petition signed by 16 Hindu community leaders and priests, delivered on Tuesday to the office of Mayor Stephen Mandel, complained that the sculptures – particularly a nude infant Ganesha, decapitated – are “a disrespectful treatment of a most beloved and cherished Hindu God.” “We’re not trying to censor,” Aran Veylan, a spokesman for the petitioners, was quoted as saying by media here. “There are private galleries out there for artists. But this art is public and it is supported with tax dollars, so there’s a tacit endorsement of this art, which was done in error.”
The artist, however, is unrepentant. “I’m so offended by these people who are telling me what Ganesha is,” McCourt told the Globe and the Mail. He said Indian culture is rich with erotic art and according to ancient texts, Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head after being decapitated by Lord Shiva. “Erotic art on temple walls or even in the Kama Sutra stands within a spiritual context,” Veylan said. “(McCourt’s) expression stands outside the Hindu tradition.”
HPI adds: Aran Veylan and Vaidyisa Bala organized an ad hoc committee of Hindu leaders to send a letter to Edmonton’s mayor objecting to the statues. It was signed by the priests and presidents of all of Edmonton’s Hindu groups, along with other prominent Hindus. Over two weekends, an additional 709 signatures from the various Edmonton temples and mandirs were collected. The statues are now gone.