Adam and Eve of the Shops

Adam

Eve

I, for one, have always associated Adam and Eve with images of a young man and woman, each beautiful and vivacious. In my mind’s eye, they are in a tropical, rich Eden where all is open to them, and full with the radiance of a fresh Earth. Traditional artwork has often upheld this idyllic imagery surrounding Adam and Eve (depictions offered by European Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Reubens come to mind). The elegant, wildly wealthy Shops at Columbus Circle of Manhattan’s Upper West Side may seem like an unsurprising location for one of these traditional representations of Adam and Eve, yet anyone that has been to this urban mall will be able to tell you about the majestic bronze statues of a (nude) rotund man and woman, and their massive genitalia protruding from their naked bodies, but will not be able to tell you about the mall’s homage to Adam and Eve. This is because that these two elephantine statues are in fact named Adam and Eve, respectively.

Adam and Eve of Columbus Circle are the handiwork of Colombian artist Fernando Botero, whose artistic trademark is designing figures with greatly exaggerated bodily proportions, something that these two certainly demonstrate. Adam and Eve stand watch over the center of the mall, totally exposed to the multitude of shoppers and tourists. Their faces are frozen in expressions that are closest to wonder, perhaps at the culmination of human history and to the capitalistic frenzy that rushes beneath their feet. They may also be in wonder over the sight of patrons stopping for photographs with Adam’s penis, or his anal cheeks. This may actually be the most common usage of the photographs, as one New York Times article from 2010 points out that the reason for Adam’s phallus being the only gold part of his bronze body is the fact that it has been gripped so many times by passers by.

The situation of Adam and Eve in the Shops appears to pose a great deal of questions, mainly: why? I am not here to say that I have the answers to Adam and Eve’s existence in the Shops, or why they look the way that they look, or pass any form of judgment on their existence. However, I will say that it’s one thing to pass by a piece of abstract art with a penis and acknowledge its existence, but it is more thought provoking if the abstract piece of art goes by a Biblical name. In the greater context of American Christian history, something that amazes me is the lengths to which individuals go to apply their faith. Dorothy Day’s immersion into poverty was rooted in her understanding of the Catholic faith and her recognition of the ever-present divinity of God. William James searched for his faith so hard that he made it a part of own intellectual expertise, psychology, when he discussed The Varieties of Religious Experience. The famous 19^th century preacher Henry Ward Beecher argued that we could be brought closer to religious divinity by being in the presence of art. What application of Christian faith is channeled into Adam and Eve of the Shops?

Maybe they are meant to serve as a reminder for consumers, particularly those of us from the United States. Adam and Eve stared in wonder at the Garden of Eden, and ultimately fell to temptation. The Bible tells us that curiosity and greed ruined them, and ruined them so much that the rest of all humankind is still paying for how much they were ruined by temptation. Adam and Eve of the Shops stare in wonder at the elegance of the mall, the pinnacle of what our capitalistic global economy has brought us, and still its fruits tempt them. Since the Bible tells us that there is still Adam and Eve’s sin left in us, and we as a nation haven’t always been the best at avoiding sin, they might serve as a warning for those mall patrons who may slap another over the last loaf of gluten free bread at Whole Foods. If we cannot curb our greed and our tempers, we are no better than the grossly distorted versions of Adam and Eve who watch over our every move. Similar to how Joshua Liebman tried to remind Americans what defined the United States in God’s eyes in his post World War II work, Piece of Mind, (spoiler alert, it was our good old, American ingenuity), I think Fernando Botero wanted to ask Americans to reflect on what their values are. And what better location to place his representation of the epitomes of temptation than a shopping mall?

"...I'll have something to think about...in between Adam's butt cheeks."

This is not my attempt to condemn capitalism or American values by any means. However, when I asked myself why Adam and Eve exist the way they do at the Shops and why they are as fat and naked as they are, this is what I came up with. Maybe I’m wrong, but at least the next time I’ll have something to think about while I wait for the flash to go off for my next picture in between Adam’s butt cheeks.