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A bronze sculpture by Leo Mol was unveiled yesterday to reopen the Richardson Plaza at Portage and Main.New Mol sculpture pleases crowd at Portage and MainBy Bud RobBrtson and Alexandra PaulA bronze sculpture by Leo Mol depicting the innocence of childhood was unveiled yesterday to re-open the Richardson Plaza on Winnipeg's famed windy corner at the hub of the city’s business district.The sculpture was commissioned by Hartley Richardson, who said it was fitting that a piece of art by a famous Winnipeg artist graces the Richardson Plaza, which anchors the northeast comer of Portage and Main, the city’s most famous intersection.The patron and the artist stood yesterday under a cloudy Manitoba skyto unveil the statue of four children climbing a leafless tree. Standing nearly five metres high and weighing almost 1,600 kilograms, it is the largest sculpture Mol has ever produced.“I’m very glad I could carry out this,” the 85-year-old Winnipeg artist said to the more than 100 smiling onlookersgathered to get a first glimpse of thehandsome bronze statue.The unveiling took place at 11:30 a.m. but hours later, curious on-iookers were still drawn to the bronze. Standing nearby was Mol, aiming a pocketcamera at his creation from different angles as the late afternoon sun cast the bronze in relief against concrete towers.Mol said the idea for the piece was an actual moment in a park in Europe 15 years ago when he watched children at play and wished he could capture the feeling in a piece everybody could see.Passerby David Ferguson pronounced himself happy with the statute because it was clean. It’s very Winnipeg. The tree is an oak, like the ones we have here and there’s nothing controversial, no nudity.”Before the artist quietly left the plaza, he took pains to say he intended the statue to be appreciated by working people.Mol added it took years to find a patron with enough money to actually commission the piece and the conceptbehind it.Office workers liked it.“We’d heard it was going to be a few other things. One guy told us it was a statue of our boss. I’m so glad to see it the way it is. It’s children and a Canadian artist did that, too,” one office worker said.Two others said the space in front of the Richardson Building needed the art.“When we first moved into the building, it was such an empty spot,’’ said Kathy Proulx.“We love it,” Donna Frost said.Another man who had listened to the dedication in the morning returned in the afternoon and said he’d rather the statue was placed in a park and not in a concrete jungle. “But I was curious. I wanted to see what it was,” Charles Warren said.The playful sculpture is a fitting backdrop to the International Conference on War-Affected Children, which the city is currently hosting, said Mayor Glen Murray, who attended the unveiling.Radiation therapists gain big raise ---niw.jtho a/tinHiVatinn “Thi« refler.ts the real enmnetition
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