CALGARY — That's a lot of Gal power.
A statue of "Wonder Woman" movie star Gal Gadot — towering more than two metres tall, clad in armour and brandishing a shield and sword — is on display at Calgary's Bow Valley College Centre for Entertainment Arts.
"Everybody loves Wonder Woman," said Alison Anderson, the dean of business, technology and the Centre for Entertainment Arts.
She said she was asked by the centre what statue the college would like as a gift and she joked it should be Wonder Woman. Shen then realized it was a perfect choice.
"It really shows what the college is all about and what our Centre for Entertainment Arts is trying to do and that's to make a really inclusive space for creative teamwork and really making everybody feel like they're welcome," she said.
Anderson said more women than men were enrolled in the college's game development program, so female empowerment seemed appropriate.
The statue showed the right amount of "fierceness and determination," she said.
Visual effects student Luisa Echeverry, 20, is fan of the statue and the superhero genre.
"I'm really loving it. It is pretty cool, especially what it means with all the female power and everything," said the international student from Colombia.
"Wonder Woman has always been in my life. It reminds me mostly of my mom. She used to say a lot that she was Wonder Woman, and it's pretty cool just having it here."
Echeverry said she sent a photo to her mom Lina back home.
"She was like 'Oh my God. That's me.'"
It took two years for the 74-kilogram statue made of polyurethane fibreglass to arrive from China due to supply chain problems. Anderson said it was shipped by boat to the United States and brought by truck to Calgary.
The statue is set to be introduced at an open house at the college on Oct. 21, which has been named Wonder Woman Day to pay tribute to the character created in 1941.
Gadot is not expected to attend.
"Our communications team is going to send her a little, 'Hey, come and look.' We're going to tease her a lot with this statue and hope that maybe some day she will come," Anderson said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2023.
Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
