A tribunal decision labelling a ladies-only lounge discriminatory didn’t consider ongoing disadvantage faced by women and male supremacy, an art gallery argues.

Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art closed the lounge after a successful complaint by a Sydney man who was refused entry to the exhibit.

The state’s civil and administrative tribunal in April ruled the lounge was discriminatory and gave MONA 28 days to allow men access.

In May, the gallery announced it would appeal the decision in Tasmania’s Supreme Court, arguing the exclusion of men was part of the artwork.

MONA believes the tribunal erred on several grounds, including finding the thrust of Kirsha Kaechele’s evidence was that the lounge was a response to historical disadvantage faced by women. Kaechele curates the artwork at the museum, which is owned by her husband David Walsh

In documents lodged with the court, the gallery said the tribunal failed to consider evidence that gender imbalance and the societal disadvantage of women was ongoing.

It said there remained a “continued existence of spaces associated with power such as elite men’s clubs”, that “power in the world lies with men” and there was “supremacy of men in the world generally”.

The gallery wants the tribunal decision set aside – a hearing for the court matter has yet to be set.

The tribunal also erred by determining the lounge did not promote equal opportunity when it was designed to provide a space free from the supremacy of men, MONA argues.

 

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Kaechele has previously said it was worth appealing the tribunal’s decision for the good of art and the law.

She said the lounge could be reopened as a “church”, “bathroom” or place of “education” under exemptions to discrimination laws

“We might allow [men] in on Sunday – and this would be part of our engagement [with an exemption] … as a school,” she said in May.

“Perhaps women could bring their laundry in and every Sunday we could allow the men in for a few hours of instructions on folding and ironing.”

In mid-July, the gallery revealed several Picasso pieces moved from the lounge to the women’s bathrooms at MONA were not originals but instead had been painted by Kaechele.

Kaechele had previously claimed the paintings were inherited from her great-grandmother, who she said knew the Spanish artist.

– AAP