Join William Yang in conversation with Ellie Buttrose as they unpack the harrowing story behind Yang’s photographic series My Uncle’s Murder featured in the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
This series recounts the murder of William Fang Yuen in 1922 at the hands of a White plantation manager in far north Queensland. Together Yang and Buttrose will discuss the contributions of the Chinese migrant community to agricultural progress in Queensland, the ongoing ramifications of the White Australia Policy, and Yang’s honest and enduring commitment to uncovering histories that would otherwise remain hidden.
William Yang is a Queensland-born, Sydney-based photographer whose significant contributions to Australian photography spans over five decades. Known for his reflective and joyous depictions of Australia’s queer scene in the late 1970s and 1980s through to the present, Yang’s photography is informed by the cultural and political pressures of growing up as a gay man from a Chinese immigrant family in north Queensland. Yang’s documentary photography encompasses explorations of cultural and sexual identities and depictions of landscape. His photographic practice is integrated with writing, video, and performance, and is grounded in narrative and storytelling.
Ellie Buttrose is the Curator of Archie Moore’s Australia Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. She is Curator, Contemporary Australian Art, at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia. At QAGOMA, Ellie recently curated ‘Living Patterns’ 2023, ‘Work, Work, Work’ 2019, ‘Limitless Horizon: Vertical Perspective’ 2017; with Katina Davidson, Curator, Indigenous Australian Art, she co-curated ‘Embodied Knowledge’ 2022; and is a member of the curatorial team for ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ 2024, 2021 and 2018. Ellie curated ‘Material Place: Reconsidering Australian Landscapes’ 2019 at UNSW Galleries.
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Presented in conjunction with the 24th Biennale of Sydney, ‘Ten Thousand Suns’ at UNSW Galleries, 9 March – 10 June 2024.
Image: William Yang, ‘In Cane Fields’, from the series ‘My Uncle's Murder’, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.
