Mona to Employ Church Toilet Legal Defence for Ladies Lounge

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The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) yesterday lodged an appeal with Tasmania’s Supreme Court to continue excluding men from the lounge.

The museum was ordered to let men in by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT’s) deputy president, Richard Grueber, following a complaint by museum-goer Jason Lau.

In an interview posted on the museum’s website, artist Kirsha Kaechele, who designed the lounge, said it already possesses qualities that make it exempt from Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act.

‘Where it isn’t already eligible, a number of minor adjustments should bring us into compliance,’ she said.

The law allows exemptions for certain religious institutions, schools, employers, accommodation, and ‘facilities [that] are reasonably required for use by persons of one gender only.’

Kaechele said the lounge would aim to meet all of these exemptions by, for instance, offering bible study.

‘We will discover many inspiring perspectives expressed in the Bible, and open up to new ideas by reading verses together, such as Galatians 3:28 ESV: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,’ she said.

She also proposed trialling a composting toilet in the lounge in collaboration with ‘the University of Tasmania, or the Buckminster Fuller Institute.’

Kaechele suggested that the toilet could provide fertiliser for the museum’s kitchen garden.

’ “Shit into gold” has been a conceptual pillar of my art practice for decades, so this is a completely natural evolution for the artwork,’ she said.

Kaechele also told press gathered at the museum yesterday that a toilet ‘celebrated the world round’ is coming to the Ladies Lounge.

‘It is the greatest toilet, and men won’t be allowed to see it,’ she said.

Amber Wilson, who covers the courts for Tasmanian newspaper the Mercury, said as a journalist it would be a bit cheeky for her to offer an opinion on the legal merits of Mona’s strategy, as she needs to maintain impartiality, but ‘in terms of its artistic merit, it’s spectacular!’

‘I just loved the almost Donald Trump-hyperbole of “it’s the greatest, the very greatest”, especially considering we’re discussing, well, a loo,’ she said.

In promising a world-famous toilet that turns shit into gold, there’s a chance Kaechele is alluding to Maurizio Cattelan‘s artwork America (2016), a working 18-karat gold toilet that was installed in a single-stall, gender-neutral bathroom at the Guggenheim in New York. Over the course of year, more than 100,000 people lined up to use the toilet.

Wilson noted that the battle for Mona’s Ladies Lounge is taking place in a year when ‘things seem to be getting worse, not better, in terms of male-female relations—just look at the epidemic we’ve got in Australia of male-on-female violence and murder, or the rise of social media personalities like Andrew Tate.’

‘I think it’s awesome when art is used to educate, challenge, and spark political discussion and outrage,’ she said.

For now, in order to comply with what Kaechele calls TASCAT’s ‘verdick’, the Ladies Lounge is closed to both men and women until further notice. —[O]

Main image: Kirsha Kaechele outside Tasmania's Supreme Court. Courtesy Mona.