Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art has been ordered to allow “persons who do not identify as ladies” entry to its Ladies Lounge art installation after losing a legal battle.
The judgment, handed down by the Tasmanian civil and administrative tribunal on Tuesday, found Mona was in contravention of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act and ordered Mona to allow men to access the installation within 28 days.
“Within 28 days from the date of this order Moorilla Estate Pty Ltd is to cease refusing entry to the exhibit known as the Ladies Lounge at the Museum of Old and New Art by persons who do not identify as ladies,” the judgment said.
The New South Wales man Jason Lau took legal action against Mona, claiming that being denied entry into the Ladies Lounge when he visited the museum last April due to his gender was a contravention of Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
Kirsha Kaechele, the artist behind the installation, told Guardian Australia in March that she was “absolutely delighted” the case had ended up in court.
“The men are experiencing Ladies Lounge, their experience of rejection is the artwork,” she said at the time.
The Ladies Lounge, which opened in 2020, has women who enter the space pampered by male butlers and served champagne while being surrounded by some of the museum’s finest pieces of art.
Kaechele argued in her defence the Ladies Lounge was a “a response to the lived experience of women forbidden from entering certain spaces throughout history” and promoted equal opportunity, the judgment said.
But Lau said the promotion was “vague” and “lacking context”, and argued denying men access to some of the museum’s most important works, including artworks by Sidney Nolan, Pablo Picasso and a trove of antiquities from Mesopotamia, Central America and Africa was discriminatory.
Richard Grueber, the deputy president of Tcat, said in his judgment the evidence put forward by Mona that the artwork promoted equal opportunity was “inconsistent”, adding “it is not apparent how preventing men from experiencing the art within the space of the Ladies Lounge, which is Mr Lau’s principle complaint, promotes opportunity for female artists to have work displayed”.
The judgment said that Mona had indicated that if they were ordered to allow men access, then they would remove the Ladies Lounge as the refusal of men is the point of the work.
“There are many aspects of this case which may seem paradoxical,” Grueber said.
“The Ladies Lounge has a pointedly participatory component that is intentionally discriminatory, for a good faith artistic purpose that many might not only appreciate but sympathise with or endorse,” he wrote.
“If the Ladies Lounge offended, humiliated, intimidated, insulted or ridiculed Mr Lau, or incited hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule of Mr Lau, rather than discriminating against him, Moorilla might well have a good defence based on good faith artistic purpose. However, the Act does not permit discrimination for good faith artistic purpose per se.”
Grueber also mentioned Kaechele and 25 of her female supporters who extended the performance aspect of the Ladies Lounge during the tribunal hearing in March. Wearing a uniform of navy business attire, the group engaged in discreet synchronised choreographed movements during the proceedings, including leg crossing, leaning forward together and peering over the top of their spectacles. When the proceedings concluded, the troupe exited the tribunal to the Robert Palmer song Simply Irresistible.
Grueber said the performance did not disrupt the hearing, although “it was inappropriate, discourteous and disrespectful, and at worst contumelious and contemptuous.”
A spokesperson for Mona said the museum would take time to “absorb the result” and consider its options.
“We are deeply disappointed by this decision,” they said.
