When a mural of a penis, er, went up on Christmas Eve in Manhattan's Lower East Side, it instantly drew a lot of attention. Just three days later it has been painted over after it was said to be making residents feel uncomfortable, reported The Independent.
The work of Swedish artist Carolina Falkholt, she told The Guardian that her pieces are about "not feeling ashamed of your body and who you are as a sexual being."
The artist, who usually paints images of giant vaginas, continued, "and since I had just finished one on the side of a five-storey building, I felt like a dick was needed. The wall space on Broome [Street] was a perfect fit for it. To paraphrase [the artist] Judith Bernstein, if a dick can go into a woman, it can go up on a wall."
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The five storey high painting appeared in a neighbourhood of New York well-known for its street art; Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Richard Hambleton have all decorated it at some point. It is thought that the piece was commissioned by a local street art foundation but they did not seek permission from the building owner, who is the one who hired painters to cover up the work
According to the New York Post, police would like to speak to Falkholt. “No arrest yet, but the charge would be criminal mischief felony,” a high ranking police source told the paper.
While most people were against the new mural, which was scheduled to stay up until mid-January, some welcomed it.
"People will want it gone quickly," one passer-by told The Independent. "But this is the LES [Lower East Side]. This mural is what is supposed to happen here."