ICYMI: Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) and artist Kirsha Kaechele have announced that they will be appealing a recent anti-discrimination ruling that ordered Mona to allow men entry into its Ladies Lounge exhibit.
The Ladies Lounge exhibit is an exclusive women-only space at Mona, in which people who identify as ladies were served champagne by male butlers. “I think it’s worth exercising the argument, not only for the Ladies Lounge, but for the good of art and the law,” Kirsha said in a statement released on Tuesday.
In a very exciting development for the Missing Perspectives team, Natasha got to sit down with Kirsha to discuss all things Ladies Lounge and women-only spaces (with a glass of champagne, of course - we had to give Kirsha a run for her performance-art money).
Kirsha told Missing Perspectives that the discrimination complaint against the Ladies Lounge "just kind of came of the woodworks."
"The Ladies Lounge was kind of operating without a glitch for a couple years, really. We opened it at the end of 2020 - so that was all happening, it was all great. Then a complainant came out of the woodwork - actually, two different ones around the same time. And they said, 'Well, we want access for men. This is discrimination.' I suppose my position from the beginning was well, yes, it is discrimination," she says.
"When I explained to the first man, well, you do experience the artwork, your rejection, your exclusion is the artwork - central to the artwork. He understood that immediately, and he dropped the case."
However, Mr Lau ended up being a more persistent complainant. "Mr Lau was much more focused on, I think, the letter of the law and he really took issue with what we were doing," Kirsha says. "We had to go first to de-escalation session, and in the de-escalation session he asked for a formal apology and access for men, to which I said, I'm not sorry, and you can't come in."
"The one the woman running the de-escalation session was just completely loving every minute of this process. She's just trying not to laugh. So I said, 'well, I just think we should escalate the situation.' You know he's like I do, too. We clearly don't agree, I said, well, look, it's going to be really interesting to see how things pan out," Kirsha says.
During the Tribunal hearing, Kirsha referenced a timeline of changes in women's rights. "I went through a whole timeline of changes in society where women were granted rights, and the rights that they're granted is so shocking," she says. "Really, you know, women weren't allowed to be paid for work after they were married. So that was pretty horrifying. Women had to lie and say that they weren't married and not wear their ring in order to continue with their job, which again, was a really bullshit job, not reflecting their skills because the men had all the leadership positions."
So what kind of feedback has she received from men after the Ladies Lounge hit the news? "This earnest belief from Mr Lau that we're equal is really sort of beautiful...I've had a few young men in their 20s who approach [me], and and look genuinely hurt and confused. They say 'why would you do this? Why would you do this? Men and women are equal.' It means that things can shift. It's a harbinger of change. So I think it's a good sign, in a way, but it's just not true. It's absolutely not true," Kirsha says.
Missing Perspectives are unofficially appointing ourselves Ladies Lounge Correspondents, so keep an eye out for our coverage of the upcoming Supreme Court case.