The Saints Wear White

Duyi Han’s The Saints Wear White is a digital concept mural that pays homage to the anonymous medical workers who stood on the frontlines during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The artist is known for creating visual and spatial compositions that are designed not only to alter perception but to evoke emotion and engage the psychological conditions of contemporary life. Han, now based in the US, was born in Shanghai. He began the project out of personal concern for his grandparents living in Wuhan. Although never physically realized, the project imagines the interior of a church in Hubei Province, China. Wuhan, a major city in the province, was the first epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Executed through digital rendering, the concept draws heavily from the formal visual language of the Western style of frescoes and paintings in religious places, but replaces traditional biblical figures with doctors and nurses clad in full-body PPE. Han’s imagined mural adopts the grand scale and compositions of Western religious iconography. The figures are shown in motion, with gestures that resemble those found in religious art, where saints are often shown in dramatic poses, making real-world medical staff as modern-day saints.

The decision to set the mural inside a church adds another layer of meaning. In the 19^th century, Wuhan was an important transshipment point between rail and river traffic, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into foreign-controlled merchant districts. The western influence thus brought in churches and church art to Hubei Province, and Wuhan especially. This setting collapses colonial history, transnational religion, with contemporary public health. By presenting a counter-narrative, the mural prompts viewers to reconsider the function of sacred space, and to reflect on how collective memory of history, or during crisis, is constructed.