By Gordon Kent

EDMONTON - Ryan McCourt says it's "rather quaint" people are upset with nudity in his sculptures outside the Shaw Conference Centre which local Hindu leaders complain don't respect their gods.

Two of the four scrap-metal pieces depicts elephant-headed Ganesha naked from the waist down. Another has him standing, his detached head lying on the ground, beside a pillar that has a breast and female genitals on it.

Mayor Stephen Mandel asked for the temporary exhibition to be removed immediately after receiving a letter signed by 16 Hindu elders, priests and other officials complaining about the "disrespectful treatment" of their cherished religious figure.

They object to the "industrial" style as well as the visible genitals, spokesman Aran Veylan has said.

Although the pieces have been up since November, at least half the people who signed the letter only recently learned of the display, Veylan said.

He said they're supported by a 700-name petition, which also asks the city to bring in a policy requiring approval from leaders of any religion before their icons can be included in publicly funded art.

But McCourt said in an e-mail to The Journal Wednesday that the issue doesn't appear to be much of a story.

"Nudity seems like a rather quaint thing to get one's knickers in a bunch over, in the 21st century. Besides, there's lots of art that I don't like," he wrote.

"I don't go around gathering signatures of people who agree with me, and try to force the art to come down. That would be truly offensive, especially in a democracy like Canada."

The Edmonton artist was given a $10,000 award after the project, titled Will and Representation, was chosen for an approximately one-year display by the non-profit Art and Design in Public Places program.

McCourt, who couldn't be reached for further comment, indicated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects free speech as well as the right to protest another person's expression.

"It is always ironic when citizens ... seek to limit the freedom of expression of others, without realizing that they are attacking the very freedom that they themselves enjoy (luckily, I quite enjoy irony)."

The show was scheduled to be removed by early October.

Staff from the Public Places program as well as the Edmonton Economic Development Corp., which runs the conference centre, are looking at whether that timetable can be moved up, EEDC spokesman Kenn Bur said.

"It's a logistical problem to get the equipment to move them or store them or whatever else might be involved."

But the statues have drawn positive comments as well as controversy.

Burr forwarded an e-mail from one man describing himself as an emigrant from India who indicated he was pleased to see a beloved Indian deity celebrated "with such clarity and dignity."

"As an Indian both working and living in this city, it is a wonderful feeling to know that Edmonton embraces my culture," the e-mail states.