Gallery as Mirror
The Director of The National Gallery, Sir Gabriele Finaldi, introduces the 2025 Artist in Residence Ming Wong. It’s the screening of Ming’s 20 minute film Dance of the Sun on the Water (Saltatio Solis in Aqua) in the underground Pigott Theatre below the bustle of Trafalgar Square. Sir Gabriele states, “The Artist in Residence programme has been running here since the 1980s. It’s amazing to think it’s over a generation old and the number of artists who have come through The National Gallery and sort of lived with us and then produced an exhibition. I think back to Paula Rego, Maggie Hambling, Peter Blake, George Shaw and in its most recent iteration I think of Rosalind Nashashibi, Ali Cherri, Céline Condorelli and Katrina Palmer. We’re very pleased to welcome Ming to this roll call of distinguished artists.”
He continues, “We’re very proud that The National Gallery has a practising artist’s studio in it. You may think of The National Gallery as a museum of old art but in fact since its beginnings it’s had a particular concern to be open and welcoming to the creative activity of contemporary artists. That’s the studio that Ming has been working in – it’s a sign of our commitment to continuing the tradition of an artist coming to experience The Gallery, to experience The Gallery as a colleague, and to turn that into an artistic response of their own. That’s what we’re seeing Ming do at the moment. He’s decided to respond to the rather amazing group of paintings of St Sebastian. The Artist in Residence’s response is always very personal and that’s what makes this significant and distinctive. It’s also offers a prism for the public to look at the Collection in a different way.”
Priyesh Mistry, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects at The National Gallery, confirms that the 55 year old Singaporean artist Ming has produced an incredibly involved outstanding project presenting St Sebastian for a contemporary audience. Ming worked for 10 years in London after completing his Masters in Fine Art at Slade School of Art before moving to Berlin, explains Priyesh. The artist drew on experiences of his formative years in London. Ming Wong arrives in The Gallery as St Sebastian, arrows piercing his tweed jacket. The full meaning of the artist as art will soon be revealed.
Ming shares his thoughts on being appointed Artist in Residence: “First of all a feeling of puzzlement – why me? And then very quickly when you accept this residency you know that the screws are tightened. That was followed by a period of awe and fear which was assuaged very quickly when I met the team that we have here at The National Gallery. It’s such a privilege when I’m being taken around by each and every curator who showed me their ‘babies’ in the Collection, meeting heads of departments, getting to know how things function in this institution. That was a marvellous opportunity. It took me almost eight months before the idea landed of what I wanted to do.” Coinciding with the end of The Gallery’s bicentennial celebrations, Ming wanted to acknowledge the scope of history and time across centuries and geographies.
During his research he was surprised to come across St Sebastian reappearing in so many different guises down the ages. “I learnt more about his martyrdom and what he represented to people over the centuries,” Ming says. “As a protector against the Black Death, as patron saint of athletes, archers, policemen … It wasn’t until I decided to rewatch the 1976 film Sebastiane by Derek Jarman that things started to click. I work a lot with the history of cinema. In a way I am copying the Masters only in my case I tell stories with moving images. These clues all came together. It was late in the day when I had the idea and then we had to get into production almost straight away because I knew we had an opening in January!”
That chequerboard sun dappled staircase rising above the Pigott Theatre past carved stone letters leading onwards and upwards, ever ascending, to The Sainsbury Wing and Gallery 10. Ming’s artwork sits in the middle of the spaces hung with paintings of St Sebastian. He shares how his idea for “medieval televisions” transmitting Dance of the Sun on the Water (Saltatio Solis in Aqua) was inspired by the narrative pictures in predellas of medieval altarpieces. The use of Latin dialogue with Latin and English captions was inspired by Sebastiane. He chose a cast of Asian or part Asian actors, mostly British, who along with the artist play the role of Roman soldiers as well as taking it in turns to be St Sebastian.
Back to the artist’s pierced tweed jacket. Spoiler alert: Ming Wong’s message is we are all visitor and apparition. Destroyer and martyr. History is us. We are Roman soldiers. We are St Sebastian.
