Australian Story (1996- )

Raised on the remote Pacific Island of Guam, Kirsha Kaechele has always felt like an outsider. It's one reason the US-born artist behind the controversial Ladies Lounge embraces a challenge.

"I want to ask the difficult questions, but I want to ask them playfully and lovingly", she tells Australian Story. "That makes it easier to investigate things and go into uncomfortable spaces."

Since meeting David Walsh, the founder of Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art, and moving to Tasmania, Kirsha has revelled in those uncomfortable spaces.

In her own unique way, she's taken on one of the island's most intractable issues – the battle between the forest industry and conservationists – by inviting all sides to a three-day Forest Economic Congress in 2023.

"We need to actually just invite our opponents literally to our parties. We shouldn't just be in echo chambers. We should drink with them," Kirsha says.

"It was like an emotional rollercoaster for three days," says Dwayne Kerrison, a forestry contractor who attended the event. "Big feelings and then some weird art."

More recently, she attracted international attention when she turned a court challenge to her women-only Ladies Lounge installation into performance art, simultaneously mocking the process and making serious points about misogyny and privilege.

"She dares to be feminine and sexual and to talk about sexuality and those power dynamics," says artist and curator Michael Zavros. "It's confronting to men; it's confronting to the art world."

She's the first to admit she hasn't always received the warmest welcome from the traditional art world.

"I have had to deal with these kind of serious art world critics who just tell me that I'm not an artist," she laments. "But it gave me something to fight against."

In an exclusive for Australian Story, the performance artist and provocateur creates some unusual characters to help tell her story - former teacher Sister Mary Catherine, hippy guru Sunfeather and German artist & critic Hans Richter.

"She'll find some interesting ways to tell her story that may not involve her normal clothes," says actor and friend Rhys Muldoon. "Her life is her art so be prepared for some surprises."

Producer: Robyn Powell.