What does it mean to be a young Australian?

The way we look, dress, talk, eat and dance – these are all fluid notions that are rapidly changing within our vast continent, and yet many of these characters continue to be underrepresented in the media that we consume daily. Skimming your eyes over an episode of Home & Away will tell you that it’s worlds apart from Western Sydney, and that’s where The Uncast step in: They seek to provide an authentic insight into Australian youths, and widen the avenues for them to shine creatively.

This Wednesday, the collective will be presenting an exhibition from local photographer Gianna Hayes, also known as Hazey. She has taken personal portraits of Sydneysiders that explore the multi-faceted concept of identity, drawing upon their connections to heritage and local culture. Ahead of the show at Goodspace Gallery, we caught up with The Uncast to discuss their motivations and what they hope to achieve from the exhibition. Read below, and find all the event details here:

What were your motivations behind creating The Uncast?

So much of what we consume culturally is imported from overseas, but we believe that Australia has just as much to offer. To us, the Uncast is a step towards building an image of Australian youth culture that one day people all over the world will refer to as they do now to the States or in the UK. What’s really important to us is that we support and promote those out there who are already doing amazing things here, but just don’t have access to the right vehicle locally.

Since starting The Uncast, we’ve partnered with various creatives across Sydney and Melbourne to create work that explores youth culture from a different perspective and are looking to collaborate with others from other major Australian cities. Our quarterly issues, which are open to public submission, ask creatives to contribute to the conversation of our evolving cultural and ethnic identities as a country. The theme for the first issue was ‘Identity and Clothing’ and the theme for the second, coming out late June, is ‘Past vs Present.’

Why did you choose to collaborate with Hazey?

We reached out to Hazey because we really liked the photos on her Instagram. Instagram has been the primary medium through which we’ve found great talent to work with whether that’s scouting models, photographers, stylists, makeup artists, musicians etc.

Once we met her, it became evident that we had the same ideas around representation and democratising creativity. Her personal experience growing up as a woman of colour feeds directly into her work which speaks to many people on a deeper level, including us. In the end it was a natural fit.

From a production point of view, we’re selective with the people we like to partner with in that they have to have a strong theme for the shoot and be able to direct it conceptually. Hazey was amazing in that she came to us wanting to explore how one’s cultural heritage can influence your identity as a young Australian. We loved the concept and she’s such a chiller so it was an easy decision to partner up. She was such a pleasure to work with and we’re so excited to be able to
share what we have created.

Tell us more about the exhibition?

The decision to do an exhibition came about because we loved the images so much it would have been a shame not to show them. We’re long time fans of Goodspace and all the work Chris Loufty has done for it over the past two years – it is such a great initiative that has been hugely supportive of young artists. Also we’re humbled that Gianna said yes to have her first solo exhibition through The Uncast.

The show consists of a series of personal portraits of young Sydneysiders which explores the many-layered nature of an individual’s cultural identity. We asked each person to bring in clothing and props that hold cultural importance for them and after the shoot spoke to them about their stories and the significance of the objects they brought in. The shoot features Amber Prado-Richardson, Amber Sisson, Atia Rahim, David Vu, Jason Vuong and Violet Aarti. All of
them contribute to youth culture in one way or another and we’re really proud to have them as part of the family.

We’re also partnering with Mozaick Records who will be playing a three hour set. They’re an upcoming record label and art collective which supports a number of local hip-hop artists – a genre that doesn’t get nearly enough support from the
Australian music scene. So on the night we’ll have Suede Francisco, Pökari, Main Street and Phil FRESH taking over the courtyard downstairs. If you’re not in Sydney, we’ll be live streaming the set via our Facebook page.

What’s on the cards for The Uncast for the rest of 2017?

We’ve just launched the first release of our apparel line in partnership with local designer and artist Joanna Frank. She took the cover image of Issue #1 and reworked it in her signature style – we love what she’s put together. Issue #2 will be out late June and we’ve got a few collaborations teed up in the near future, one of them is with Backyard Opera and
another in Melbourne.

The Uncast is so young, it’s all been very experimental and collaborative and everyone has been so receptive so we’re really excited for what’s coming up, so stay tuned for more news on all that.