Since humanity began putting up structures we have decorated them. This bas-relief is a vision of Peel Region long forgotten but all the more touching for that. A strong man protectively astride a woman and lovingly held baby. This is progress and prosperity a la post 1945 Canada. Steam trains, wheat fields and a pair of matching DC-3 airliners. Sounds good now that post-modernity and neo-con economics have worn so thin. This representation may be gone soon. It is at the front entrance of a non descript but solid mid-century building once used by a community college and as a school board headquarters. Now boarded up, we wonder as to the fate of this bas relief.
Bas relief lent itself well to the delivery of messages and realistic bas relief was very popular under fascist regimes. In the west it often became abstract in order to avoid accusations of it being propaganda. We can handle this particular item as propaganda and hope it can be saved. Maybe even something of its vision can be saved, too.
editor's note: Betty Page bangs = 5000 bonus points
