William Yang is something of a Queer Icon in Australia’s art world. A third generation Chinese-Australian born in Brisbane in the 1940’s, who as soon as he was old enough he left the genteel quiet of Queensland to head to Sydney, the gay mecca of Australia. He not only developed a acute eye and remarkable natural talent for photography, but he also wormed his way into the circles of bohemian artists, fashionistas and gay sub-culture where he learned to fine tune his craft.
In his hey day in the 1970’s and 1980’s it was impossible to pick up any leading magazine or periodical and not see some of his work gracing the pages. As well as covering social events and fashion shows and every aspect of the gay life of the city, he also developed his own avant garde style of documentary composition that set him apart from his contemporaries. He was also not adverse from time to time to photographing beautiful young men in delicate erotic poses.
In the late 1980’s Yang started to combine his art with his other talent : writing, and started a whole series of performance art pieces. He began to perform monologues about his life and art with slide projections in the theatre, and they soon became the main expression of his work. This documentary movie is based on one of these, and is specifically about the other artists of his generation that have played a significant part in his life.
As much as one admires Yang, there is no deflecting from the fact that his deadpan delivery straight to camera is somewhat off-putting. He has this unfortunate leaden manner which makes his few funny lines fall quite flat. And whilst its fascinating to hear him talk of the likes of Jim Sharman (the Director of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’) and Patrick White (the first Gay Nobel Literature Prize Winner) when Yang starts to rattle off about local artists and celebrities, the going does get a tad uninteresting.
Yang is an extremely likable man who has a great tale to tell …. he has in fact made several different theatrical performance pieces, and possibly one of them would have been more suitable for a larger audience who are not so steeped in the names of the Australian culture movement.
