Hope Springs Eternal in the Human Breast
SFist was recently contacted by local artist Alyssa Morgan, who had an interesting story to tell -- apparently, she had been contracted to provide art for the grand opening of John Colins, a new bar in SOMA. Throughout the creation process a member of the bar's ownership team viewed the art, but once delivered to the bar the art remained for only one evening.
The reason? The bar's owners determined that her work, which she describes as "unique mixed media works...[with] tasteful nudity in themand a totally non-sexual context" could not remain because (in the words of Colin O'Reilly, one of the bar's owners: "I can't have this many tits in my bar."
According to O'Reilly, when Giuffre arrived with the works he was disturbed, characterizing his reaction to us as "shocked that I suddenly had all this porn -- eight pairs of breasts in my bar." He says that he didn't realizer that there would be "so many naked women -- the other things I saw of her's were definitely much more small and artistic."
Broken agreements, broken hearts, and broken bathroom doors after the jump.
Shackled Genie by Alyssa Morgan, used with permission
The pieces remained up during that evening's party, which was attended by family and friends of both Giuffre and O'Reilly. O'Reilly tells us he felt uncomfortable that both his and Giuffre's mother had to be in that setting, and he made the decision that fewer of Morgan's works should remain at John Collins for the next month. He offered to allow all the works to be hung for her opening, which he asserted he would still be happy to host. Upset at this change in the agreement, and additionally distraught since she had hoped friends and clients would be able to view her works throughout the coming month, the bar owners and Morgan continued to argue about the situation throughout the evening. The alcohol flowed and the argument grew heated, leading O'Reilly to assert that after one particularly heated exchange Morgan slammed the restroom door, causing some damage. (While Morgan concedes that she was indeed drinking, she denies any charges of damage to the property.)
By the end of the evening it had been decided that the works would be removed immediately, and by the next day they had been removed. Morgan remains upset at the violation of the verbal agreement she had with the owners of John Colins, and O'Reilly himself expresses regret at how the situation resolved itself.
While the business decisions of a privately owned bar are just that -- their private decisions -- most business owners do not take the violation of an agreement lightly. There's usually a strong and compelling reason such a difficult step must be taken, and in this case O'Reilly makes it clear that he was not comfortable with the subject matter of the contracted paintings. There are a lot of goofy jokes we could make here, about how he's the first bar owner in the history of straight bars to complain about too many tits in his bar, but the fact remains that this stirred something deep in these business owners. It's worth wondering if these are similar sentiments than those driving the controversy surrounding public breastfeeding, among other things -- or is it that the subject matter of the paintings in question were indeed of a nature to sexually charged for the comfort of the bar owners and their clientele?
Morgan continues to feel wronged by the decision O'Reilly made to retain his vision of his business. If we were talking about a disagreement about bathroom fixtures, it would be one thing, but instead it seems to be an interesting illustration of how the "I'll know it when I see it" school of thought regarding what is too hot to handle.
The paintings Morgan intended for John Colins can be seen here. Take a look at them (may not be safe for work, as if you hadn't guessed) and let us know what you think. Would their display enhance or detract from your bar-going experience? Was O'Reilly's decision the one you would have made, were you in his place? How many tits are too many for a bar setting? Please let us know in the comments.