Once again, right-wing violence prevails.
Rocky Mountain News - November 12, 2001
Kidnapped Penises Now In Police Custody
by Owen S. Good
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."
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Rocky Mountain News - November 13, 2001
Library art won't be reinstated
Safehouse says phallic display will stay down to keep exhibit safe
by Owen S. Good
BOULDER -- A string of ceramic penises strung along a clothesline
will no longer be displayed in an art exhibit at the Boulder Public
Library, the show's sponsor said Monday.
Boulder County Safehouse, sponsor of "Art Triumphs Over Domestic
Violence," said it will not rehang artist Susanne Walker's array of
ceramic symbols, which were stolen Saturday by a Boulder-area man but
later recovered. Safehouse said its concerns were for the security of
the exhibit and its patrons.
Boulder resident Bob Rowan admitted stealing the artwork and has said
he would steal it again if it goes back up. The objects Monday were
in an evidence box at the Boulder Police Department.
Rowan has not been arrested, and police are consulting with Walker to
see if she wants charges pressed.
Safehouse would not comment on its decision beyond a statement
announcing it, and Walker was unavailable for comment.
But the Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
was willing to weigh in. Representatives Monday criticized both the
decision to remove the exhibit and the police deferral to Walker.
"We consider this censorship, and he (Rowan) has done his job," said
Judd Golden, vice chairman of the Boulder chapter.
"He accomplished what he set out to do, and it's extended by not
putting it up again."
Barry Satlow, chairman of the Boulder chapter, said the ACLU would
send a letter to District Attorney Mary Keenan demanding that Rowan
be prosecuted.
Leaving it up to the victim, he said, harks back to the ineffective
way in which domestic violence once was handled: "If she doesn't
complain, it's OK, it's not a crime?" he said.
"Bull. This is a crime and should be treated as a crime."
Rowan, 49, said a Denver attorney called a radio talk show to offer
free representation should he end up in court. Others called to ask
about establishing a legal fund.
"What a crazy deal," Rowan said Monday. "I thought I was gonna get
away scot-clean. But I guess I deserve what I got coming to me."
Rowan said the exhibit so offended him that he marched into the
Canyon Gallery on Saturday morning and removed the fiesta-colored
penises in front of befuddled onlookers. He later confessed to a
radio station.
The foofaraw over phalluses may lead the gallery committee at the
Boulder Public Library to a more conservative stance when approving
future exhibits, city spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said.
Some on the committee "got a funny feeling" when they considered the
exhibit, she said. "But they also were worried about censorship, so
they ended up letting them hang," she said.
"They may listen to that funny feeling more now," she said.
