The photographs shown here stem from a body of work exhibited in the 1990s under the title Friends of Dorothy (a term used to signify homosexuality), during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. While they frankly confront the tenor of fear and anxiety that characterised the era, Yang's photographs are imbued with tenderness.
In the work titled Names, two photographs taken at an AIDS vigil are overlaid with the names of victims. Here, the tragedy is registered as both a shared and a personal loss.
These works are displayed in the 20th- and 21st-century Australian galleries at the Art Gallery of NSW in conjunction with the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: the perfect medium (27 October 2017 – 4 March 2018).