The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) has lodged an appeal with Tasmania’s supreme court after losing a legal battle over its Ladies Lounge installation.
Mona will challenge an order from Tasmania’s civil and administrative tribunal to allow “persons who do not identify as ladies” to visit the Ladies Lounge, created by artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele.
The order came after New South Wales resident Jason Lau was denied entry to the exhibit in April of last year. In response, Lau filed a gender discrimination lawsuit, which he won last month.
“The artwork evokes in men the lived experience of women forbidden from entering certain spaces throughout history,” Mona said in a new statement.
“We deserve both equal rights and reparations”
Kaechele added: “I’ve decided to take this to the supreme court. I think it’s worth exercising the argument, not only for the Ladies Lounge, but for the good of art, and the law.
“We need to challenge the law to consider a broader reading of its definitions as they apply to art and the impact it has on the world, as well as the right for conceptual art to make some people (men) uncomfortable.
“Ladies love the lounge – a space away from men – and given what we have been through for the last several millennia, we need it! We deserve both equal rights and reparations, in the form of unequal rights, or chivalry – for at least 300 years.”
Mona said the appeal has been lodged on the grounds that the tribunal took too narrow a view in terms of “women’s historical and ongoing societal disadvantage”.
The tribunal, Mona said, did not recognise how the experience of the Ladies Lounge can promote equal opportunity.
In a new interview on the Mona blog, Kaechele said the installation could “become a toilet… in a large, green velvet room, with butlers who serve champagne”. This would allow it to continue operating as a women-only space under legal exemptions.
“There is a real precedent for people imbibing in the toilet. People enjoy all kinds of substances in there,” Kaechele added.
Images courtesy of Mona
