In English
POST-SHOW TALK
after the performance in English with William Yang moderated by Soma Boronkay dramaturg.
Celebrated Australian artist William Yang’s family is scattered around the world, yet the bond of blood binds them in unexpected and powerful ways.
When William’s mother died in 1992, he embarked on a personal journey to rediscover his immediate and extended family. The result is Blood Links, a visual feast, an intriguing blend of storytelling, social history, performance and documentary photography with humour and irony. A family story of birth, traditions, skeletons, death, love and food – hauntingly familiar in content. The performance entices the audience to take a journey of their own. Prompted by Yang's incisive observations, they reflect and draw personal conclusions about their own family histories.
William's transatlantic exploration of his genealogy unites him with scores of relatives from all walks of life, some rich, but most ordinary folk with menial jobs, and most cannot speak a word of Chinese.
A visual feast, Blood Links examines how the Chinese diaspora establish roots in foreign soil, and how over the generations, through intermarriage, blood is mixed; yet the intricate bonds of family remain.
William Yang is one of Australia’s most celebrated independent photographers and performers. He was born and raised in North Queensland, his grandparents having migrated from China to the Top End during the 1880s gold rush. He worked as a playwright from 1969 to 1974, and since then as a freelance photographer. His first solo exhibition in 1977, Sydneyphiles, caused a sensation because of its frank depiction of the Sydney gay scene. In the mid–eighties, William Yang began to explore his Chinese heritage which had hitherto been lost to him by his complete assimilation into the Australian way of life. William Yang integrated his skills as a writer and a visual artist in 1989. He began to perform monologues with slide projection in the theatre. These slide shows were a form of performance theatre and have become his favourite way of showing his work.
Creator & Performer: William Yang
Music Composer: James Brown
Producer: Performing Lines
POST-SHOW TALK
after the performance in English with William Yang moderated by Soma Boronkay dramaturg.
Celebrated Australian artist William Yang’s family is scattered around the world, yet the bond of blood binds them in unexpected and powerful ways.When William’s mother died in 1992, he embarked on a personal journey to rediscover his immediate and extended family. The result is Blood Links, a visual feast, an intriguing blend of storytelling, social history, performance and documentary photography with humour and irony. A family story of birth, traditions, skeletons, death, love and food – hauntingly familiar in content. The performance entices the audience to take a journey of their own. Prompted by Yang's incisive observations, they reflect and draw personal conclusions about their own family histories.
William's transatlantic exploration of his genealogy unites him with scores of relatives from all walks of life, some rich, but most ordinary folk with menial jobs, and most cannot speak a word of Chinese.
A visual feast, Blood Links examines how the Chinese diaspora establish roots in foreign soil, and how over the generations, through intermarriage, blood is mixed; yet the intricate bonds of family remain.
William Yang is one of Australia’s most celebrated independent photographers and performers. He was born and raised in North Queensland, his grandparents having migrated from China to the Top End during the 1880s gold rush. He worked as a playwright from 1969 to 1974, and since then as a freelance photographer. His first solo exhibition in 1977, Sydneyphiles, caused a sensation because of its frank depiction of the Sydney gay scene. In the mid–eighties, William Yang began to explore his Chinese heritage which had hitherto been lost to him by his complete assimilation into the Australian way of life. William Yang integrated his skills as a writer and a visual artist in 1989. He began to perform monologues with slide projection in the theatre. These slide shows were a form of performance theatre and have become his favourite way of showing his work.
Creator & Performer: William Yang
Music Composer: James Brown
Producer: Performing Lines
NSW Government through Arts New South Wales, the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body
