California (Bay Area, Northern) Artist has work removed from Ritual Coffee Roasters, deemed too "Serious"

well

well

the artist posted a reply on either fb or a blog last night saying not to hate on Ritual, but to like her artwork.

Question for all those hatin' on Ritual for this incident - would you (are you) going to buy those prints or originals?? Yeah, didn't think so.


anu L ogy said:
Why doesnt the artist print out the email from the owner and put it up around the shop on a few telephone poles, and leave a few inside the shop that way patrons can make up their own mind.
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I would think that with the dark dismal atmosphere of that coffee shop photos of dead mother's things would be perfect.
 
ChrisN said:
Well, all I can say is that the coffee shop has done the photographer a favour. If they had let them sit there, they would never have received the attention that they are now getting.
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I don't think the photographer is doing herself any favours here. She's getting attention but it's the wrong kind.
 
Leigh Youdale said:
Well, I'm on the side of the coffee shop owner. I think it's great that she makes space available for artists/photographers to exhibit their work. On the other hand, I think the issue might have been handled a little better and that she may wish she'd had time to edit the letter. Some of the wording, for example. "Fluffy"? I don't think so.
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The way I understood it the owner used the word 'fluffy' as an implicit compliment to the photographer as in 'your work is too good for our place, we just need some decorative fluff pieces'.
 
Jamie123 said:
I don't think the photographer is doing herself any favours here. She's getting attention but it's the wrong kind.
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You're probably right. If an aspiring artist turns every gallery criticism into an internet dispute that brings a gallery into bad odour, they will find it difficult to get representation. Maybe the people who have beaten this up have not done her a favour.
 
Al Patterson said:
Now THAT is what I'd expect in SF. The original stuff taken down would be quite an improvement over the boring stuff in my local coffee shop. Flower macros and bland scenic stuff abounds...
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A new coffee shop (very trendy) opened near me recently and the walls were adorned with nothing but macros all printed very large and photoshopped to hell!

I asked about them and the owner's comment was "A friend of mine is a very talented photographer, aren't they wonderful!"

🙄
 
So, having lived in the area, and having been there, here's my thoughts:

1) She spent $3100 for 11 prints? Srsly? I don't know what size they were, but that seems extreme.
2) The work is too much of a downer for me at breakfast, which is when I'd be getting my coffee.
3) The store owner recognizes the art of the work, it's just "not right for me." As a writer, I get that all the time, so it doesn't bug me.

Frankly, it's one of the aspects of life as an artist, and I wouldn't be whining about it publicly. Lick the wounds, try to meet up with the fired curator and get an in at a gallery show where my work would be exposed to people more likely to buy my work.
 
I'd call this whole mini drama 'clever advertizing.' I bet it triples business in that coffee shop/gallery. The political booby photo alone will probably double the business. 🙂
 
Jack Conrad said:
I'd call this whole mini drama 'clever advertizing.' I bet it triples business in that coffee shop/gallery. The political booby photo alone will probably double the business. 🙂
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I don't think so. Everything in SF is political (as is evidence by this little melodrama) and seemingly everyone is an artist (and if they're not they fervently support the arts). Certainly, it'll raise awareness of Ritual (not that it needs it), but for as many who will support the cafe by patronizing it, there will probably be twice as many who will boycott it (Besides there are other really good coffee shops in the Mission district)—at least for a little while. However, I think the smartest thing that the owner did was not to hang 'fluff' in place of the "banned" art. Instead, she hung something "arty".



/
 
Leigh Youdale said:
However, the work itself is morbid and self-indulgent as revealed in the artist statement, and lacks artistic merit. It has little, if any, significance for people other than the photographer who has a personal attachment to some very mundane objects..
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I like those photos. I think they are formally well composed. Since I am "other people" I guess you are wrong.
 
my latest conspiracy theory related to the great ritual coffee house debacle of 2011 is that the cafe owner saw the boob photos somewhere, liked them enough to want to hang them right away and bumped whatever was hanging at the time. didn't matter what was hanging at the time, she was just making up excuses, and her weird a$$ email sounds that way. after all, she did fire her curator and put these up right away. there. solved.
 
Gabriel - "Are we equating morbid = not artistic merit?".
No I didn't say that and I don't think there's any connection to be made.

Melvin - "I like those photos. I think they are formally well composed. Since I am "other people" I guess you are wrong."
Again, no. Not wrong. My opinion is that they're lacking artistic merit, and to answer your specific point, I don't think they're particularly well composed either, but that's mainly due to the concept and the subject matter. Your opinion is different. That doesn't make me wrong. Or you.
 
My thoughts, as posted to the photographer's Flickr page and copied to the shop's owner:

As a native San Franciscan and current Seattlite (both cities chock-full of great coffeehouses), this saddens me. Your work is strong and personal and authentic. A coffee shop, of course, is a business. It's not a gallery or a museum. But if a coffee shop is any good at all, it does two things: it serves a damned fine cup of coffee, and it serves as a focal point for a community: a neighborhood or a group of people with various other commonalities. It has to do both, and both of these things require integrity, albeit of different sorts. If Ritual is any good, as a coffee shop, then they've done some harm to their community and they'll suffer a bit for this. If they don't suffer a bit, they probably weren't much good to begin with.
 
I found the press coverage inspiring. I'm shooting my next series with the specific intention of being banned from a coffee shop. I bet that will get me a gallery show. I know a few people with coffee shops. Maybe they will ban me if a ask nicely.
 
Somehow, I just don't see how anything on the wall at this place would bring more than a casual glance whilst folks, (including "the typical Mission Hipsters" referenced by a local article), are talking and drinking coffee:

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Okay...I've read the entire thread (every word Gabriel) and I'm in agreement with semilog on this one( for what it is or isn't worth).

It's really kind of sad for both parties here. On the one hand there was a written agreement (I didn't bother looking for the contract, though). I'd love to know if the contract had any language regarding early pulling of the display. I'd be tempted to think there isn't. If that were the case, is 6 weeks really that long a period of time for the owner to put up with art on her walls that she doesn't like? On the other hand, taking your dirty laundry to the public realm like this is a bit petulant and childish. I'm reminded of those times when I happen into some local weirdo I don't always like to get cornered by; and they go on to me with their problems and I'm looking for a way to escape. Neither party has reacted to the situation in an adult and professional manner and it seems they're both coming out smelling less than rosy. As I've learned from my father in law...."most pain in life is self-inflicted".

Then again...reading some comments on the blogs and news stories reminds me that my opinion doesn't carry very far past my nose and plenty of people have chosen their side in this.
 
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