A Swedish artist’s four-story mural of a purple penis faded to gray
Wednesday after workers descended on the Lower East Side building to
slap a fresh coat of paint over the artwork.
The building landlord ordered the cover-up at 303-305 Broome St. amid
complaints from his neighbors that the anatomically detailed painting
was indecent.
“At first, I thought it was a flower,” said Ye Su, who works across the street at the Buddhist Guan Gong Temple. “I think they’re crazy. We are a temple. There is a church there, a school, the park.”
Wing Ho, 57, owner of a laundromat next door to the mural, said he was
shocked when artist Carolina Falkholt put the finishing touches on the
enormous organ around 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
“It’s awful,” said Ho. “It’s making a lot of people upset and uncomfortable.”
Falkholt, 40, of Sweden, issued a statement defending her decision to
paint the penis that loomed so large over the local streets.
“I felt like a d--- was needed,” said Falkholt, who had just finished an
abstract mural of a vagina on nearby Pike St. “The wallspace on Broome
was a perfect fit for it ...
Many in the neighborhood were stunned to see the painted phallus peering down on the streets.
“I’m sure the building owner got an earful from the community,” said Naomi Pena, president of the local education council. “My own children pointed out the mural to me — they’re twins, age 8.
“They said, ‘Mom, that’s disgusting. Why is that there?’ From the mouths of babes.”
