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  "path": "/news/christian-saint-asian-trans-man-national-gallery-exhibit",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-06T11:16:25.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "'This is a crisis of faith!' Church organs across UK 'will fall silent within 50 years', report says",
    "Catholic devotee marks Good Friday by being nailed to a cross during brutal crucifixion re-enactment",
    "Archbishop of Canterbury to use first Easter sermon to issue urgent plea for Middle East peace",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nA Christian saint has been depicted as an Asian trans man in a National Gallery exhibit.\n\nSaint Sebastian who was an early Christian martyr, has been portrayed in a new art installation by an Asian transgender man in London’s National Gallery.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTo retell the story of St Sebastian, who was believed to have been killed during the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians, transgender models have been used by Ming Wong, a Singaporean artist.\n\nThe new installation involves different videos depicting the trans models playing the Christian saint, where they can be seen to be listening to a seashell, dancing and doing martial arts movements.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAccording to Christian belief, St Sebastian survived an initial execution attempt in which he was bound and shot with arrows, before being nursed back to health by Irene of Rome - a scene that became a popular subject for 17th-century artists.\n\nHe is said to have then confronted Emperor Diocletian directly over his sins, a decision that ultimately cost him his life when he was beaten to death.\n\nThe saint is venerated in both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches as the patron saint of athletics, archery and plagues.\n\nMr Wong’s transgender models are barely clothed - like a lot of the depictions of St Sebastian in paintings - and are play-fighting and touching each other, the Telegraph reports.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nPaired with the video is audio of a Latin translation of the final monologue from Kenneth Clark’s 1969 BBC art series, civilisation.\n\nThe videos conclude generally with the trans models being injured by arrows, with stills of other religious imagery from the National Gallery’s collection.\n\nIn more modern depictions of the saint, his image has often been interpreted as homoerotic.\n\nIn medieval art the martyr appeared as an older, mature figure.\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * 'This is a crisis of faith!' Church organs across UK 'will fall silent within 50 years', report says\n  * Catholic devotee marks Good Friday by being nailed to a cross during brutal crucifixion re-enactment\n  * Archbishop of Canterbury to use first Easter sermon to issue urgent plea for Middle East peace\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nHowever, after the Black Death of 1347, his image softened into something younger and healthier.\n\nRenaissance artists then reimagined him entirely, drawing on ancient Greek ideals of male beauty to present him as a handsome, near-naked young man.\n\nSince then, artists have imagined the saint in different ways, with Mr Wong’s installation being the latest in a string of homoerotic interpretations of the martyr.\n\nDerek Jarman's 1976 film Sebastiane explicitly sexualised the saint’s torture, while British painter, Keith Vaughan, used the story throughout his work to explore homosexual desire.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nSignage for the artwork states: “Wong’s film reimagines the martyr’s narrative within the gallery.\n\n“Latin-speaking Roman soldiers are performed by Asian actors of different genders, alongside the artist himself, staging a dialogue between an ancient past and a global present.”\n\nMr Wong has been artist in residence at the National Gallery in 2025, as part of an initiative to shine a light on contemporary art.\n\nHe is the fifth artist to be appointed since the launch of the Gallery's Modern and Contemporary Programme\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nHis residency follows artists Rosalind Nashashibi, Ali Cherri, Céline Condorelli and Katrina Palmer.\n\nMr Wong said of the appointment: \"There isn't a better time to reimagine the stories that these characters and creatures inhabiting these worlds can tell one another, and their exchanges that cross centuries and civilisations beyond the frames.\"\n\nDaniel F. Herrmann, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects, at the national gallery said: \"With genuine compassion, curiosity and grace, Ming Wong’s work asks how the images and culture around us create notions of ourselves and others.\n\n\"We are excited to be working with him during his residency at the National Gallery, particularly as we reflect on the Gallery’s 200-year history.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Christian saint depicted as Asian trans man in National Gallery exhibit"
}