A legal dispute between MONA artist Kirsha Kaechele and a man named Jason has made its way to the Supreme Court, in an appeal to reopen the Ladies Lounge.
A parade of women dressed in navy blue, led by Kaechele, danced their way to the Tasmanian Supreme Court on Tuesday to attend the first hearing of Kaechele’s appeal.
The performance art resembles a similar move from the hearing at the Tasmanian Civil and Adminsitrative Tribunal earlier this year, which found Kaechele’s art space discriminated against men. The case was brought to the TASCAT by a NSW man named Jason Lau. Kaechele is now appealing that decision in the Supreme Court.
Speaking on Kaechele’s behalf, her lawyer Catherine Scott explained to the court that her art space, the Ladies Lounge, is a “flipped universe” that intentionally excludes men, providing them with an experience of discrimination that women have experienced for centuries.
“That’s its purpose, that’s its reason for being,” Scott said.
“Women… can come in, men can’t and go away and think about why.”
Scott said Kaechele’s art space shows how women are “less respected, less valued and less powerful than men” in ordinary, everyday society, and Jason Lau, the man at the centre of the legal battle, “did participate in the artwork in the way that it was intended”.
Lau was not in court on Tuesday. His lawyer, Greg Barns SC, argued the Ladies Lounge’s intentions were “vague and lacking context” and disputed Kaechele’s claim that the space actually promotes equal opportunity for men and women.
“It isn’t going to do what the Anti-Discrimination Act is designed to do, and that is to address structural inequality,” Barns said.
A decision from Acting Justice Shane Marshall on the matter will be made at a later date.
Fake art controversy
The Ladies Lounge has been embroiled in drama – not just from the legal proceedings involving Jason Lau, but from a revelation that the art space contained counterfeit artwork and precious objects that turned out to be fake.
In July, in a blog post on MONA’s website, Kaechele admitted to displaying fake Picasso paintings, counterfeit objects she purportedly inherited from her grandparents, and even a supposed royal “mink rug” that was “in fact a low-grade polyester”.
Enquiries from a journalist and a letter from the Picasso Administration about the authenticity of the displayed artworks in the Ladies Lounge forced Kaechele into a confession – that she had created the artwork herself.
Kaechele “told no one” she was replicating Picasso artworks, but so close to committing the perfect crime, the opening day of the Ladies Lounge three years ago was almost Kaechele’s undoing: she had accidentally hung one of the paintings upside down. But instead of fixing the problem, she chose to do nothing, and waited to see what happened.
“I waited for weeks. Nothing happened. I was sure it would blow up. But it didn’t,” she said.
As women continued to visit the Ladies Lounge at the MONA, seemingly no one picked up on the replicated paintings, nor the other objects displayed in the artwork.
Everything that has unfolded in this saga, including the tribunal hearing, the closure of the Ladies Lounge, and even her recent confession, is art – and feminist art at that.
“This mad and magical saga has changed me,” Kaechele wrote. “I’m awed by the transformative power of art. It has deepened my connection to women and made a feminist of me. My love for women burns brighter.”