A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel's killing of Palestinians in Gaza highly divisive. Gabrielle Goliath filed the lawsuit last week, with Ingrid Masondo, who would have curated the pavilion, and the studio manager, James Macdonald. It accuses Gayton McKenzie of acting unlawfully and violating the right to freedom of expression and demands the high court reinstates her
On Sept. 19, Senior U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith sided with the plaintiffs' first two claims, denouncing "a viewpoint-based standard of review to Plaintiffs that disfavors applications deemed 'to promote gender ideology'" - a catch-all dogwhistle describing depictions of gender and sexuality outside rigid heterosexual marriage. The court "vacates and sets aside Defendants' current plan to implement the Executive Order."