In a massive win for the girls and mirror selfies, Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has fired back at a discrimination ruling about one of its exhibitions by rehanging multiple Pablo Picasso paintings in its female toilets.
ICYMI, MONA was last year found to have discriminated when it refused to let a New South Wales man into a female-only exhibition dubbed the Ladies Lounge.
Picasso was among the artists whose work featured in the womens-only space, but MONA was made to stop refusing entry based on gender following a discrimination complaint lodged by Jason Lau to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) last April.
At the time of his ruling, TASCAT deputy president Richard Grueber said MONA’s refused entry “was direct discrimination”, which is coincidentally what I say whenever HOYTS doesn’t let me sneak in pre-bought snacks.
Ladies Lounge has been closed ever since the tribunal’s decision, but MONA has now found an innovative workaround to the ruling by relocating the Picassos to the female toilets.
The move was announced on social media on Tuesday by artist Kirsha Kaechele, who created the Ladies Lounge exhibition last year. “A new exhibition at Mona,” the curator wrote on Instagram. “Just for ladies…”
Kaechele, who is also the wife of MONA owner David Walsh, went on to reveal the museum’s bathrooms were unisex prior to the ruling, but were then segregated for the purpose of displaying all the Picassos that were previously in the Ladies Lounge.
“We never had female toilets at Mona before, they were all unisex,” she wrote. “But then the Ladies Lounge had to close thanks to a lawsuit brought on by a man. And I just didn’t know what to do with all those Picassos.”
The relocation allows MONA to continue its womens-only display while also abiding by the discrimination ruling. It’s also a big win for the niche group of people who prefer to relieve themselves under the watchful eye of the world’s most famous cubist.
Showing yet more nifty loophole-jumping, Kaechele suggested in the Instagram post that MONA would “get the Lounge open again” by reclassifying it as a church, school, or “boutique glamping accommodation” under section 26 of Tasmania’s Anti Discrimination Act, which outlines when access can be denied based on gender.
“But in the meantime, enjoy! (ladies),” Kaechele quipped.
During the TASCAT ruling last year, Kaechele argued that Ladies Lounge — which had been open since 2020 and housed some of MONA’s most prized pieces — was a “response to the lived experience of women forbidden from entering certain spaces throughout history.”
In May, Kaechele announced that the museum would be appealing TASCAT’s decision in Tasmania’s supreme court. Until then, women patrons can catch Picasso sitting pretty alongside the fellow piece of art that is an automatic air freshener.
Image source: @kirshakaechele/Instagram.
