The Story only I can tell
Please note: this lecture is not at Thistle Hall. It is at:
Victoria University of Wellington
School of Design
Lecture theatre [LT01]
Tea and Moon cakes from 1:20 pm
Talk begins 1.40 pm
To commemorate the public exhibition
WHAT WE SEE. WHAT WE SAY, Thistle Hall Community Gallery - 18 - 22 Sept, 2018.
William Yang has been invited to speak about his work
and practice as a photographer.
William Yang has been a photographer for 40 years.
25 years ago he began projecting his photos in theatres
and talking with the images. His stories were
autobiographical and this form became successful
for him. He has done eleven full-length works.
He was born of Chinese Australian parents and grew up
strongly identifying as Australian although he looked
Chinese He suffered because of the way he looked as he
was not as he appeared to be. He was also gay. He liberated
himself from social expectation, and his search
for identity is one of the main themes of his work.
The Story Only I Can Tell is the generic story of his
life. His forebears migrated from China to Australia
over a hundred years ago and subsequent generations
adapted to western culture. William grew up in North
Queensland on a tobacco farm, and he has made his
way in the world as an architect, a playwright, a photographer,
a visual artist, a film maker, and now a story-
teller. He has led a varied life and this basic story can
be supplemented with optional, additional themes: like
photography, Sydney celebrities, being Chinese in the
West, China, landscape, being gay and cultural diversity.
