2025 SPAF Milestone

Immigrant, queer, artist… A stage memoir where photography, storytelling, and music intersect.

<Milestone> is a retrospective performance created by William Yang—one of Australia’s most celebrated visual and performance artists—as he turned 80 in 2023. Centering on themes of family, cultural identity, and sexual identity, the piece unfolds his journey as a human being and artist on stage, blending his vast photo archive amassed over decades with his uniquely warm and candid storytelling. The melodies of chamber music composed by his long-time collaborator and prominent Australian composer, Elena Kats-Chernin, deeply and subtly envelop this stage where memory and loss, identity and healing intersect.
The piece begins with Yang’s experience of alienation as a Chinese immigrant in 1950s Australia, which he once described as “like a terrible curse.” After moving to Sydney in the late 1960s, he came out and began documenting his life, sharing his identity within a countercultural artist community. The 1970s saw him fully embrace his work as a photographer during the height of the gay liberation movement. From the 1980s onward, his journey toward reconciling with the Chinese heritage he had long ignored became a turning point, marking the beginning of a new artistic expression.
<Milestone> represents the culmination of a unique performance style William Yang has pioneered. Blending photography and memory, body and language, and music, the piece offers a delicate confession that illuminates the trajectory of society, era, and community through the lens of the self.
As an Asian-Australian, a gay man, and an artist, he reflects on the societal changes he has witnessed over decades and the evolution of Australia's radical art community, centered around LGBTQ+ and immigrant artists. And as the 'last of his generation,' he invites us to reflect deeply on the meaning of family, community, and connection.