William Yang, Copy of Hand-Coloured Publicity Photo for ‘The North’. Large photo of William by Sandy Edwards. 1996

A new exhibition at Manly Art Gallery & Museum brings together a diverse group of artists to create works that reflect on what it means to have hyphenated identities.  The works presented in the exhibition are meant to expand the audience’s appreciation of the immigrant experience, hybrid identities, and the Australian embrace of global diasporas.

The hyphen – a grammatical symbol that connects words to avoid ambiguity – is often used in the descriptions of communities that diverge from the majority cultural, religious, or national definitions of an area. In terms like Chinese-Australian, Muslim-Australian, and Asian-Australian the hyphen simultaneously connects and separates identities. Bicultural and multicultural communities are connected but at the same time, distinct. One of us but not quite so. In this context, the tidy hyphen reveals itself to be a knotty character.

Hyphenated presents the works of Deanna Hitti, Emma Rani Hodges, Kirtika Kain, Pamela Leung, Jason Phu, Ben Soedradjit, Samuel Tupou, Jason Wing, and William Yang. Each artist currently lives and works in Australia and is at a different stage of their life and career. Through presenting unique perspectives on diverse cultural narratives, as a group, the artists create a powerful exploration of the hybrid qualities of hyphenated identities.