John Young, Lambing Flat Riots installation view within The Lives of Celestials exhibition at Boroondarra Arts Centre, 2019.
JOHN YOUNG is an exhibiting artist in the travelling show Don't Ask Me Where I'm From. The exhibition will open at the Imago Mundi's Gallerie delle Prigioni in Treviso, Italy, and will tour to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto in March, before multiple venues across Canada, the US, Europe & the Middle East.
The exhibition is born out of a new partnership between the Aga Khan Museum & the Luciano Benetton Foundation's Imago Mundi, dedicated to fostering dialogue and understanding between cultures and communities. Don't Ask Me Where I'm From channels the immigrant experience in a series of diverse artistic commissions exploring cross-cultural artistic realities.
John Young will present a version of the Lambing Flat Riots project. Between November 1860 and September 1861 the New South Wales goldfields of Burrangong, near the present day township of Young, was the site of Australia’s largest racially motivated riot. Rising antagonism over gold mining disparities and cultural habits saw trivial misunderstandings intensify into racial tensions that erupted into violence across the goldfields. Over 10 months, Chinese miners were subjected to threats, robbery and sustained acts of violence. This anti-Chinese sentiment had swept through the goldfields of Victoria in the 1850s and by the early 1860s had reached a flashpoint in New South Wales, provoking public opinion and debate. In Sydney, the NSW Parliament responded to the contention by passing legislation to restrict Chinese immigration and began, alongside Victoria and South Australia, to write the prelude to the White Australia Policy.