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Calgary’s mayor has finally weighed in on the Bowfort Towers controversy, calling the uproar over the art project a “public lynch mob.”

A week after the unveiling of the contentious artwork, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he is going to reserve judgment of the piece until he has seen it in person and it is finished. Still to be installed across from the towers are drumlines — oval-shaped mounds of earth left behind by receding glaciers.

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“I think it’s a bit dangerous to make judgments on something that’s not done, that you haven’t seen or experienced,” Nenshi said during a news conference at the provincial legislature unveiling the city charter.

The artwork, a quartet of steel beams cradling rocks, is supposed to be representative of Blackfoot culture because of the use of the number four, which represents the four seasons, four stages of life.

However, many in the Blackfoot community are concerned and angry about the towers looking too similar to traditional burial structures. Many have said if there had been proper consultation, there would have been a red flag raised on the similarities.