Action: Covering 2, 2021

Editioned Photograph

121 x 81 cm

THE BURRANGONG AFFRAY
The Burrangong Affray, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, 29 June-12 August 2018
The Lives of Celestials: John Young Zerunge, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn Arts Centre, Boroondara, 31 August - 20 October 2019

Three photographs document a performance by John Young, in which he walked, mud covered, from Blackguard Gully to the Currawong Farm, retracing the steps taken by Chinese miners on the night on 30 June 1861 when they were driven off their diggings, in an effort by the artist to embody their experience. When he lies down, exhausted, an anonymous figure comes to cover him with a blanket, offering benevolent care in a manner proximate to that given by the farmer James Roberts, who sheltered some 1200 Chinese refugees on his property in the few weeks after the riot, giving them blankets, shelter and food. Rather than focusing only on the horror of the Lambing Flat Riots, Young chooses to centre this act of benevolence in the work to show how the strength of shared humanity can cross cultural divides.