South of City Hall is Churchill Square. Flanked by theatres, galleries and cafes, it is a place that blossoms like a concrete flower in the summertime. Food trucks, buskers, and even ping pong tables host businessmen and bohemians alike. The square is named after Sir Winston Churchill, the man who saw the U.K through some of the most brutal wartime years in modern history. His spirit lives on in Edmonton, not only in name but in body, thanks at a sculpture that sits at the northwest corner of the square.
The statue depicts a porcine Churchill swathed in grimy fur robes, fists clenched, lurching forward, guided by a crooked nose atop a scowling mouth. There are two prevalent interpretations of the piece, sculpted out of brass by Oscar Neman.
1) The dark tone is meant to reflect the epoch in which he stewarded his nation. His heavy steps and tense grasp are acknowledgements of his own contribution to the shattered mosaic of brutality that was the 2nd world war.
2) It was initially intended to be a statue of Danny Devito’s Penguin character from the Tim Burton film Batman Returns, but city council ran out of the money needed to make him a hat.
Like all great art, the sculpture is ambiguous. Churchill, or naked headed character actor Danny DeVito? It’s dual life forever oscillates in our souls like a quantum particle. Here, while there. Unmoving, and moving.
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