Art and soul from Brisbane’s gallery to a Burnie cafe
Catch the latest William Yang exhibition in Brisbane and stop for a latte at a divine little Tassie cafe.
Hot in the City
Seeing and Being Seen: William Yang retrospective, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
More than 250 works by Australian photographer and performance artist William Yang are on show at Queensland Art Gallery: Gallery of Modern Art until August 22. It’s a stunning survey displayed on stark charcoal walls that often veer into sharp angles, drawing the viewer’s eye.
During north Queensland-born Yang’s five-decade career, he has consistently sought to express social identity, diversity and inclusivity and issues of race and belonging in his work. Some critics have found his approach unsettling but in an era when paradigms and injustices are being openly examined, Yang’s brave lens seems even more relevant and necessary. He never flinches at presenting issues of marginalisation and his photography of the LGBTIQ+ community, the AIDS epidemic and the joyfulness of Mardi Gras is a particularly strong documentation.
His portraiture covers creative identities such as Patrick White, Cate Blanchett and Brett Whiteley, while in his lesser-known medium of landscape, we see the cane-fields of his youth, lean and rangy trees of the Australian bush and an extraordinary image of Uluru caught and held tight in grey-black shadow.
Yang, born in 1943, is third-generation Chinese but his ancestral culture was not part of his upbringing, a deficiency he has explored in recent years as a “born-again Chinese”, along with issues of ethnicity, discrimination and the discovery of the shockingly casual (and unpunished) murder of his uncle William. The exhibition is a tribute to a man who’s never resiled from confrontational visual storytelling and exhibition curator Rosie Hays speaks of the “confession and courage” of Yang’s work, a perfect description deepened by his trademark overlaid scripts that amplify and honour the subjects.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Cool in the country
The Chapel, Burnie, Tasmania
You have to love a menu featuring “shark and chippies”. The Chapel cafe, located within an 1890 Wesleyan Methodist church on Burnie’s Cattley St, serves up local gummy shark, clad in crunchy dill-accented crumb, atop salad and chips. And praise be, it’s heavenly.
Other temptations include “not your average fries”, “the ultimate ham toastie” and “darn fine soup”. Big promises, sure, but judging from patrons’ faces the food lives up to the hype. Andrew and Lydia Turner opened The Chapel in 2015 in a space many locals remember as the CWA building. They undid some “godawful” renovations and highlighted features such as the soaring timber-lined herringbone ceiling. A weathered sleeper from the West Coast Wilderness Railway’s steep rack-and-pinion section dangles from the rafters, supporting a constellation of lightbulbs.
Much pride is taken in the single-origin brews issuing from the customised Synesso coffee machines (joined to appear as though it’s one big steam-snorting beast). Turner is also a brewer of beer. Sample his efforts over lunch or, later this year, at his new venture, Communion Brewing Co, in nearby Wilmot St.
The Chapel is open for breakfast and lunch six days a week but closed on the day of rest. Once sated, explore Burnie’s other delights, which include chatting to artisans such as artist and puzzle-designer Sue Holm at the Makers’ Workshop. Nearby is the Little Penguin Observation Centre. Have wheels? Head out of town and potter alongside the Emu River at Fern Glade Reserve. Designated as one of Tasmania’s 60 Great Short Walks, the amble just might include a platypus sighting.
KATRINA LOBLEY
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout