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| In Milestone, artist William Yang shares stories from his life, from his childhood in Queensland to his connection with his Chinese heritage as an adult. (Supplied: Sydney Festival/George Gittoes) |
By Nicola Heath for The Stage Show
Growing up in Far North Queensland in the 1940s and 50s, photographer William Yang desperately wanted to fit in.
But Yang, a third-generation Chinese Australian, always felt like an outsider, despite his mother's efforts. While she spoke Cantonese and his father spoke Hakka, a southern Chinese dialect, the family conversed exclusively in English.
"My mother wanted us to be more Australian than the Australians," Yang tells ABC Radio National’s The Stage Show.The realisation as a teenager that he was gay further cemented his feeling of being an outsider.
"That was like a double curse for me," he says.
Yang moved to Sydney in 1969, where he made his name as a photographer documenting the city's nascent gay subculture.
In the 80s, he began exploring his Chinese identity and became known for his performance pieces, in which he presented his photographs as a slide show accompanied by a spoken-word monologue.
Now 81, Yang is one of Australia's leading artists, exploring themes of family, sexuality and cultural identity in work that has been shown at major institutions including Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
In 2021, his career was the subject of a major retrospective, William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen, at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.
"She didn't want us to … stand out and become a target."
The realisation as a teenager that he was gay further cemented his feeling of being an outsider.
"That was like a double curse for me," he says.
Yang moved to Sydney in 1969, where he made his name as a photographer documenting the city's nascent gay subculture.
In the 80s, he began exploring his Chinese identity and became known for his performance pieces, in which he presented his photographs as a slide show accompanied by a spoken-word monologue.
Now 81, Yang is one of Australia's leading artists, exploring themes of family, sexuality and cultural identity in work that has been shown at major institutions including Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
In 2021, his career was the subject of a major retrospective, William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen, at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.
In his latest show, Milestone — a performance piece conceived to mark his 80th birthday — he reflects on his life through the lens of his photography.
The show opens at Sydney Festival in January, before touring to Melbourne in February as part of Asia TOPA.
Photography as activism
Yang arrived in Sydney as the city was on the cusp of great social change.
His friends — a network of like-minded artists — slowly began coming out to each other as the gay liberation movement gained momentum.
Yang says he never made a conscious decision to come out but was "swept out by events at the time".
Progress was slow in the movement's early days.
"It didn't happen overnight," Yang says.
"It took a whole decade for a gay community to form; it wasn't until the 80s that a gay culture emerged in Sydney."
In 1981, Yang documented the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras at the request of his friend Peter Tully, who was instrumental in transforming the now-iconic annual street party from a protest march into a celebration of queer culture.
"He was Mr Mardi Gras," Yang says of Tully, who died of an AIDS-related illness in Paris in 1992.
"Peter always led from the front with his own spectacular outfits, which he called 'urban tribal wear'."
Yang had become a regular fixture in Sydney's gay social scene, photographing the parties and events he attended.
But, at the time, being photographed as a gay man was risky. Teachers, for example, could lose their jobs if they were recognised.
"Well into the 80s, there were some people who were out, but there … was a lot of fear around being exposed," Yang says.
But, for others, appearing in Yang's photographs was an act of activism.
"There were people who'd say … 'Take our photo, publish it', because there was a desire to be visible," he says.
"The gay community had been invisible for hundreds of years and now there was a chance to show ourselves."
I've Been Loved (1999), showing Yang in the arms of fellow members of the Asian Lesbian and Gay Pride group.
(Supplied: Sydney Festival)
First published at ABC News, January 8, 2024
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