In the latest instalment of the Ladies Lounge saga at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), curator Kirsha Kaechele has revealed she faked a number of Pablo Picasso paintings hanging in the gallery’s new ladies toilets, established in response to the forced closure of the Ladies Lounge earlier this year.
This entire saga is perhaps the most effective piece of performance art I’ve seen since Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece of 1964 – a work hailed as being the Titanic of performance pieces. In it, Ono sits, as members of the public are invited to approach and cut off pieces of her clothes.
As was the case with Cut Piece, the public’s reaction to Kaechele has been intense. Unlike Ono, however, Kaechele’s performance has lasted for months and has engaged and scandalised many more people, garnering worldwide attention.
