Breaking Icons

100 wooden frames, 100 black-and-white photocopies, broken glass, 59.4 x 42 cm per frame

Breaking Icons (Breaking Icons) features portraits of intellectuals, artists, and politicians who have had a decisive and constructive influence on Jota Castro’s life.

The artist shattered the glass frames with a hammer. Somewhere between admiration and rejection, this act also challenges our temptation to recognize these portraits. The work thus becomes a metaphor for the symbolic violence involved in freeing ourselves from the fascination our idols hold over us so that we can make our own choices.