Controversial UI art exhibit goes forward -- with doors closed

A new art exhibit at the Studio Arts Building on Highway 1 in Iowa City has a lot of people talking.

This week artist Emily Barwick rolled out "The John Holmes Prick Parade" exhibit in the Eve Drewelowe Gallery.  The exhibit consists of nearly three dozen penis sculptures.

"The majority of art history is dominated by the nude female form, and so this parade is bringing equality to that gender exhibitionism," said Barwick, a 27 year-old graduate student.

The sculptures are molded after John Holmes, a pornographic film star who died from complications of the AIDS virus in 1988.  Barwick said she got the idea to cast Holmes' penis after seeing a novelty toy at a store in Florida.

"It's interesting that there's a company that actually literally owns the rights to this reproducible part of a man's actual body," she said.  "His member is being mass-produced."

Barwick began casting the penis sculptures in 2009.  Last year she started distributing them to friends and art students who wanted to take part in the project.  Many of the castings were returned with various designs and sketches on them.

"The university reviewed the exhibit, and it met all the guidelines and it's been allowed to go forward because it's a matter of artistic expression," said UI spokesman Tom Moore.

The door to the exhibit will remain closed so that "anybody passing by wouldn't be exposed to something they didn't want to see," Moore said.

"It's unfortunate in a way because I would like it to be more inviting, but I also understand that people are entitled to their opinions," Barwick said.  "I didn't do this to shock people, but it is what it is."

Barwick credits the 2004 "Herky on Parade" public art project for inspiring the theme behind how the penis exhibit was laid out.

The exhibit is open daily through Sept. 18.