WILLIAM YANG’S MY GENERATION

Performance artist William Yang describes himself as an, “Astute voyeur.” His works have included a controversial insight into the Sydney gay scene in the 1970s, the explorations of his blood lines as an Australian-Chinese growing up in rural Queensland, the murder of his uncle and the death of many friends from AIDS, the marginalised communities of Australia. As a self-described observer, his works are spectacles of observation that allow audiences an unparalleled peephole into rich and varied worlds, captured through spoken word, slides and music. History and narrative shadow all that he does, so while his shows feel deeply personal, there is a fierce undertow of human connection and universality. In My Generation, Yang zooms in on the explosively colourful artistic community of Sydney’s 70s and 80s, the technicolour excesses of designers Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson, the gumball pop art of Martin Sharp, the iconic theatrics of Patrick White. “It was a certain time in history coming out of quite a conservative time, and there were a lot of people … liberating themselves, and … challenging the ideas that had gone before them.” For someone who has often explored belonging, he says, “I felt for the first time a kind of artistic family with that group.” Is there a kind of voyeurism at play in not only in our fascination with that era, but in Yang’s retelling? “I don’t tell everything, I am fairly discrete in my old age. I have been a social photographer for all these years, I have a sense of what people like and don’t like about themselves – it’s a condition of ordinary vanity!” What does come into focus is William Yang, the artist, ever astute.

Feb 23-Mar 6, Performance Space, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $20-30, performancespace.com.au