Christian Martyr St Sebastian Depicted as Asian Transgender Man in National Gallery Exhibit
The National Gallery has sparked fury after it depicted the Christian martyr St Sebastian as an Asian transgender man, with campaigners calling the exhibit “disgusting” and calling for a boycott. The Mail has the story.
The third century martyr, who secretly aided Christians, was sent to be executed by archers and shot with arrows, before being clubbed to death on the order of the Roman emperor Diocletian, according to traditional belief.
Transgender models are retelling his story in an exhibit by Ming Wong, a Singaporean artist, at the National Gallery in London.
Visitors can view videos across several rooms showing trans figures playing St Sebastian – who is shown listening to a seashell, dancing and performing a martial arts routine.
The new exhibit is intended as a new take on the martyr, with signage for the artwork stating: “Wong’s film reimagines the martyr’s narrative within the gallery.
“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.”
But it has sparked fury among gender-critical activists, who argue the depiction of St Sebastian is not historically accurate.
Lucy Marsh, from the Family Education Trust, told the Daily Mail: “Portraying St Sebastian, who is venerated in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions, as a ‘transgender’ man is not only historically inaccurate but incredibly offensive to Christians.
“Rewriting history and pretending that an important male saint was secretly trans is ridiculous, because a Roman soldier could not have been female!
“It’s also not acceptable for a publicly funded institution to promote gender ideology in an exhibition which is open to families.”
She added: “Children may believe this depiction of St Sebastian is accurate, which could cement the false idea that transgenderism has been around for centuries. The National Gallery is world renowned and funded by taxpayers, who should not be paying for offensive exhibits which promote harmful ideologies as fact.”
The models can be seen wrestling and caressing each other, wearing minimal clothing.
Most clips end with models being shot with arrows – which the saint miraculously survived – next to stills of religious images.
Women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen described the exhibit as “disgusting”, adding: “On so many levels this is wrong. However, it seems right now in the UK Christianity is failed and abused.
“The places like the National Gallery doing this deserve to be boycotted. It’s about time we protect Christianity, because it’s the foundation on which this country is built.”
Worth reading in full.
I’m sure the artist’s next work will involve portraying Muhammad as a transgender lesbian.
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why?
I would pay to see a depiction of the last sentence.
We are certainly living in very weird times.
I would not pay. I would not go to see it if it were free. There is probably a payment beyond which I would be prepared to go to see such a thing. I have not worked out what that price would be but I’ll accept sealed bids.
Ah.
Crap.
One of the purposes of art is to be thought provoking.
But the transgender angle is thought provoking at this point to who exactly? Someone who has just woken up from being in a coma for a decade or two?
Whoever is in charge at the National Gallery should hang his head in shame for being so crushingly boring and unoriginal.
“…Muhammad as a transgender lesbian – being stoned to death.”
Finished it for you.
This is an art gallery, not a theatre for ideological performative art.
‘actors of different genders’. Well I suppose the two that actually exist are different to each other but you just know they meant a whole array of genders.