- Nov 1, 2001
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Yes, I would rub it for luck 
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ஜhttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/an-attention-getter-irresistibly-interactive/?src=tptwOctober 21, 2010, 11:14 am
An Attention-Getter, Irresistibly Interactive
All day long, shoppers and tourists at the Time Warner Center stop at the 12-foot-tall Adam that greets visitors and provides perhaps the most memorable Manhattan meeting spot since the clock in the Biltmore Hotel.
The other day, Glyna Aderhold, a retired 67-year-old real estate broker from Nashville, was crossing the lobby of the mall at the Time Warner Center, the soaring castle of commerce and culture at Columbus Circle, when she passed a monumental bronze sculpture of a man and saw something that made her pause.
I walked up and I was looking at his head and boom! This thing hits me right in the face, Ms. Aderhold said.
The thing was the statues genitals, which are uncovered and at eye level to the adult viewer. She was being metaphorical. They didnt actually strike Ms. Aderhold in the face. But they could have.
Ms. Aderhold kept walking, but all day long, shoppers and tourists alike stop at the bubble-figured 12-foot-tall Adam by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero that greets visitors and provides perhaps the most memorable Manhattan meeting spot since the clock in the Biltmore Hotel. And when they stop, they often touch, grasp, pat or rub the statues small but prominent penis, while a friend or relative takes a photo.
Grab. Smile. Click. Next.
Just on the other side of the Williams-Sonoma store stands Adams partner, Eve. She gets her share of attention, too, but not as much physical contact.
Most of Adam is a deep dark brown; his penis, though, is worn golden from extensive handling.
This is a maintenance issue at the mall. We have an art dealer that comes in and redoes the patina from time to time, said David Froelke, the centers general manager, but it doesnt last very long.
David Benrimon, Mr. Boteros former gallery representative in New York, said that the artist did not intend for his sculptures to be touched. Management at the Time Warner Center, however, welcomes patrons to interact with the Boteros imposing, yet playful and approachable in the artists signature style as they see fit.
In looking at my shoppers coming into the Time Warner Center, Mr. Froelke said, theres so much hustle and bustle that if I can do something to slow the experience down and make it more pleasurable, Im doing something to make their day a little bit better.
Around the world and throughout history, of course, people have rubbed statues for luck, from Abraham Lincolns nose in Illinois to Lou Costellos shoe in Paterson, N.J., to the snout of the Porcellino boar in Florence to various parts of the charging bull of Wall Street in Bowling Green Park.
Sculpted phalluses, in particular, are associated with fertility and power. The genitals of hermai in ancient Athens were anointed with olive oil, while farmers worshiped the improbably endowed god Priapus in hope of a more bounteous harvest. In India and Nepal, people touch, kiss and offer rice and flowers to lingams, statues of the god Shivas penis.
People touch and pose with Adams penis for many reasons. Because its unusual. Because its funny. Because its just the right combination of naughty and not-too-naughty. Because its not in a museum but in a shopping center, where the goods are meant to be handled.
In our normal lives, you really cant go up and touch someones genitals, said Fernanda Bennett, the deputy director of the Nassau County Museum of Art on Long Island, which has exhibited its share of Boteros over the years. But you can if its made of bronze and in a public space, and your friend will take a picture of you, too.
Or as Christian Rosario, 16, a student at Manhattan Theater Lab High School, said after encountering Adam: Its a penis, like, in the middle of a mall just out in the open! It should have a sign on it saying Touch me.
Within half an hour on a late-September afternoon, Adams organ drew a steady stream of visitors. First Graciela Fabres, 26, of West New York, N.J., parked her stroller and held her hand beneath the penis, palm up, as if presenting merchandise on Lets Make a Deal, while her husband took her picture. A fiftysomething woman with blond hair and workout clothes grabbed it appraisingly, shook her head with a slight scowl, and walked on.
Then the Yerkinbekova cousins, finance students from Kazakhstan, showed up. Zhanel, 23, grabbed Adam from above, below and sideways, while her cousin Maria, 24, snapped photos. They switched places. Maria kept her distance from the organ.
I dont want all our pictures to be the same, both touching the same penis, she explained.
Some visitors come to Adam with certain ambitions.
I thought it would be good for sex, Guenter Virtel, a German tourist in his 40s, said after his wife took a photo of him holding the penis. When Marie Helene Pollett, 65, visiting from France, touched the penis, her son Bruno Pollett explained that she did it for her husband, Jacques, who is 69.
The luck is for him, Bruno Pollett explained, smiling at his father. He will benefit.
If nothing else, Adam offers visitors to the mall an umissable landmark. Jack Kelly, a man in his 60s from West New York, N.J., said that he regularly met a friend at Time Warner Center. When they make their plan, do they say, Meet me at the Botero? No. Do they say, meet me beneath a certain part of the sculpture? Yes.
We never get lost, Mr. Kelly said.
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