Daniell Rider, a Hobby Lobby consumer, found a decoration at one of their stores so offensive, she shared the image on Facebook requesting that they remove the decor from their shelves.
What was it?
Rider on Thursday shared a photo of a shelf with glass bottles containing what appear to be replicas of raw cotton plants.
She captioned the photo, “This decor is WRONG on SO many levels. There is nothing decorative about raw cotton… A commodity which was gained at the expense of African-American slaves.”
“A little sensitivity goes a long way,” she added. “PLEASE REMOVE THIS ‘decor.''
What kind of outcry occurred?
After Rider shared the post, it garnered viral attention on Facebook.
At the time of this writing, the post has been “liked” 33k times, has received 76k
comments, and has been shared nearly 7k times.
The reaction was split — some commenters supported Rider’s outrage and wrote things like, “What do you expect from HL!!!? NEVER shop there!” while others couldn’t find the offense in the innocuous-looking decoration.
One commenter wrote, “Ummm… it’s cotton… ***…its 2017… do you know some slaves in 2017 that picked this cotton and didn’t get paid for it. Just… stop.”
Some perspective
Art is art, and visual decor falls into that category.
Visually stimulating productions of art — whether worthy of The Louvre, or simply available at your local craft store — is created with intent and meant for interpretation.
Art’s intent is to be stimulating, and oftentimes meant to be a conversation piece in order to trigger important conversations.
Art can also be art for the sake of visual appreciation. There doesn’t necessarily need to be a deep meaning behind it.
While artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock are widely different, each represents an unconventional aspect of art appreciation which some may “get,” while others may not.