Ceramic penises taken - replaced with Old Glory

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Ceramic penises taken, replaced with Old Glory Associated Press

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BOULDER — A controversial art display featuring 21 brightly colored ceramic penises was stolen Saturday from a domestic violence awareness exhibit at a public library.

The work, entitled "Hanging 'Em Out to Dry," was suspended from a clothesline. Someone removed the penises from the clothesline and replaced them with an American flag and a note with a joking reference to a bandit, city spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said.

The library was criticized this month when officials declined to hang a 10- by 15-foot American flag in the lobby, saying it was too big. A smaller flag was put there instead.

Artist Susanne Walker, who created the work, said the theft contradicts the values symbolized by the flag.

"It makes a joke of the pain and suffering involved in this exhibit. If you want to attack me or my artwork, then confront me with discussion," Walker said in a written statement hung in the gallery Saturday.

Police believe the theft occurred in the morning while the library was open. The exhibit is near an auditorium where a children's performance was held Saturday, and police hope someone might have witnessed the theft.

The exhibit, entitled, "Art Triumphs Over Violence," also includes paintings. It is sponsored by the Boulder County Safehouse, which shelters and supports battered women and children.

Many of the works were done by former abuse victims or their relatives.

The stolen artwork, which became a hot topic on talk radio, was placed in a corner, out of the direct view of people entering the library.

Officials also posted a sign warning people they might be offended by the display.

November 11, 2001

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Answers

I wasn't gonna touch it.... but with the world events going on, I just couldn't help myself. Just doing my part to lighten up the ... em... er.... mood. So I posted it. Comments always welcome. ;)

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

As long as you are trying to lighten things up...

Everyone know what a "Blackberry" is? It's one of those remote pocket e-mail gadgets. All the lawyers in my firm (e.g., not me, thank heavens) were provided Blackberries and training earlier in the year.

Don Imus has been plugging them lately. A few days ago he's saying that they're great because you don't need to drag your computer around, the blackberry is very convenient, fits in your hand like a penis.

Then one of the guys in the background says, "Not my penis..."

'Fraid I won't be able to think about them in quite the same way again.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


i can see thru Brooks' thinly veiled blackberry envy. LOL

[almost like a see thru condom, but I won't say that.]

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


No, no, it's Imus Envy. I can't think of any real-life friends (like my boss) I can tell this story to, so you guys are stuck hearing it.

I didn't start listening to Imus on a regular basis until after 9/11. He was very subdued for a while, and just recently has gotten back to a wiseguy attitude. I had forgotten how non-PC he could be.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


Ok, I'm very, very tired. Some woman hung penises from a clothesline with "pain and suffering" knowing that children would see this? And someone else replaced the penises with a flag that was too big?

Did my tax dollars subsidize this?

?... ?

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001



No, helen dear, you're hallucinating from exhaustion. Make yourself your favorite comfort food and catch some Z's.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

I have always liked the fearless Imus. And there is real talent on his show besides him. Bernard McGurck (sp?) does the best impersonations to be heard anywhere. His Walter Cronkite is so good that it's uncanny.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

I was wondering who did the impersonations. Those are Bernard? Do you know if he writes those segments as well?

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Imus has people on who can write?

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Rocky Mountain News

Phallus art puts father in a fury

Exhibit choice over flag display spurs man to act

By Owen S. Good, News Staff Writer

Bob Rowan has a wife, a 5-year-old daughter and a house north of Boulder, and to all three he returned Saturday morning, carrying a bag full of penises.

He put them in a box in the family room, and started getting over his rage.

Rowan, 49, was infuriated by a display inside the Boulder Public Library's gallery, where the colorful ceramic penises had dangled from a clothesline in a domestic-violence themed exhibit.

Only a week before, talk radio hosts thrashed the library for refusing to make a patriotic display of an American flag. Then they learned the penises had quietly been shown since October.

The two symbols, the flag and the phallus, were inseparable to Rowan. One supported fighting men overseas; the other, he said, was a strident, sensational "male-bashing" work, and the library selected the latter. Rowan simmered over that choice for a full day, then drove to Boulder to do something about it.

In full view of a few silent onlookers, Rowan plucked the 21 penises from the line, put them in a trash bag, and left a small American flag and a calling card: "El Dildo Bandito was here." It was an act that would bring police to his house in the middle of the night, but it is not one he regrets.

"It's not art, it's garbage," Rowan said Sunday morning. "I detest the fact they're hanging there, number one, but the timing; it's the wrong time to do something like this. And it should never belong in something I pay taxes for."

Rowan should find out today if he will be prosecuted. City spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said it is artist Susanne Walker's prerogative to file charges, though the theft occurred on city property. The case will be referred to a detective.

Walker could not be reached for comment Sunday afternoon. A statement at her display called the theft "an attack on my freedom of speech," as well as the gallery, and the issue of domestic violence against women.

"It makes a joke of the pain and suffering involved in this exhibit," she wrote.

The penises were not on display Sunday evening, presumably because they were in police custody, Bray said.

Rowan had telephoned the news offices of Denver radio station KOA-AM (850) on Friday night to tell them what he would do the next day, said producer Cory Lopez. Rowan had heard about the controversy on an FM station owned by KOA's parent company.

Then, Saturday evening, Rowan called the radio station again to confess. KOA told police, who went to Rowan's home to recover the penises.

"My intent was not to break and smash them," Rowan said. "I told police, here's the box, I was going to mail them back. I wanted them down, I didn't want the stupid things."

Rowan, a plastering subcontractor, said two friends accompanied him but they didn't witness or participate in the theft. He said his brother-in-law, a lawyer, tried to talk him out of his plan.

Rowan didn't flinch. "This was a smack in the face of pure decency," he said.

Walker, in her statement, demanded the thief confront her personally. "If you want to attack me or my artwork, then confront me with discussion," she wrote.

"There is no face-to-face discussion," Rowan said. "I'd be glad to stare at her, but we won't have a conversation on what the value of her art is. Not in our public library, anyway. You don't hang penises and then discuss what the value is."

Rowan said he is not insensitive to the issue of domestic violence, and he said other pieces in the exhibit, some of them nudes, are tasteful and appropriate.

But for his penis pilfering, "If I gotta go to court, I gotta go to court, and maybe it happens that way," he said. "I'm just so ticked about the whole deal, I can't believe it."

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001



I think Bernard writes his own stuff. That is one wickedly funny individual.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

This reminds me of an old Robin Williams routine where he pretends to be a disconnected penis and testicles and the testicles work as little wheels for the penis to get around on..........

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Ok...ok...if someone exposes a real penis in a public place, that's a sex crime. But if you display several fake penises in a public place, that's freedom of speech...?

I woulda helped him take 'em down...yech!

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


Where's Carl when you need him???

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

If this case goes to trial, undoubtedly there will be a hung jury.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


How do you know your lawyer is well hung?

.

.

.

(When you can fit only two fingers between his neck and the rope.) >:)

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001


Helen!!!

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2001

Bumped for Carl.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001

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