William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen

Publication Details Hardcover / 260 x 210mm / 192 pages / more than 200 colour and black-and-white illustrations. ISBN: 9781925922028

Author and/or Editor name/s Rosie Hays, Benjamin Law and Susan Best

Author and/or Editor bio/s Rosie Hays is Associate Curator, Australian Cinémathèque, QAGOMA, and curator of ‘William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen’. Benjamin Law is an Australian writer and broadcaster, and author of the memoir ‘The Family Law’ (2010), the Quarterly Essay ‘Moral panic 101’ (2017) and the editor of the anthology ‘Growing Up Queer in Australia’ (2019), among many other titles. Professor Susan Best is an art historian and Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Year of Publication 2021

Publisher Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Abstract Accompanying the Queensland Art Gallery │ Gallery of Modern Art exhibition of the same name, ‘William Yang: Seeing and Being Seen’ explores photographer and performer William Yang’s five decades of prolific art practice. This is the first major survey publication on the artist by a state gallery. Featuring reproductions of over 200 photographs, it traces Yang’s career from his heady early days as a social photographer in the 1970s documenting Sydney’s queer scene through to some of his well-known series addressing family ties, sexual and cultural identity, and the Australian landscape. Developed in collaboration with the artist, the publication also examines the artist’s deep connections to Queensland, including his mid-career explorations of growing up in the far north of the state.

Several insightful essays that delve into the public and private realms of the artist complement Yang’s highly personal and engaging imagery. QAGOMA curator Rosie Hays provides an overview of the artist’s highly regarded career; writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law gives an account of his own experiences growing up as a gay, Chinese Australian; and Professor Susan Best discusses the artist’s engagement with shame — and his refusal to accept it — in both personal and public histories. This must-have publication for devotees of photography celebrates William Yang’s invaluable contribution to Australian art and our rich traditions of storytelling.