Ruffles and Ripoffs: Anthropologie’s search for “inspiration.”
The Seattle Stranger reports this week on an issue of concern to independent artists. The point is illustrative of why every artist should immediately register copyright in their creations.
In May 2005 at a nonprofit arts space in Portland, Maine, called The Map Room, artists Kavanaugh and Nguyen covered the walls with brown paper and called their installation Striped Canary on the Subterranean Horizon. The Map Room is embedded in a hillside, and the artists wanted to “reveal” the earth behind the walls.
Sculpture magazine touted in its April 2006 issue. The magazine featured two full-color photographswith the story. Months later, that very design appeared in the Seattle Anthropologie.
Kavanaugh explained last week in an interview at Suyama Space in Seattle, where he currently has a solo show. The artists, unfortunately, have no recourse.
“We had no rights because the piece that we did was in a nonprofit context,” he said—but if Striped Canary on the Subterranean Horizon had worn a price tag and shown in a commercial gallery (or if the artists had applied formally through the copyright office for their nonprofit temporary installation), the artists could sue for copyright infringement.”
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