The politics of iconoclasm: cut out their eyes.

Will Nash
Will Nash
Jul 24, 2017 · 5 min read

The first known societies understood that a person’s face in public, as a statue or a painting, gave them power, and that the conspicuous vandalism of the image inverted that power. The strength of the image was turned back on itself, animating the point that a person able to be celebrated in public can also be erased from public.


In 31 AD, Lucius Sejanus, a Roman consul, was tried and convicted of plotting against the Emperor Tiberius. Apart from being executed and thrown down the Gemonian stairs (in that order), he was punished with Damnatio Memoriae; condemnation of memory. His statues, which the Emperor had erected, were demolished or, where statues remained, they were given different heads of their die-cast adonic torsos. The goals of this activity was to eliminate all memory of Sajanus and to prevent new learning of his life. In a world with low literacy or no photography, Sajanus would have quickly passed from public memory and replaced with very little else.

A defaced statue of Queen Hatshepsut

In much the same spirit, Thutmose III of ancient Egypt didn’t just demolish the statues of his stepmother, Queen Hatshepsut, he struck her name from the lists of monarchs in the kingdom. It seems this differed from the case of Sajanus; the intention was not to offend her memory, but to only to erase her. She was a risk to her step-son’s political power and an interruption in the line which entitled him to his political power. Thee erasure seems to have been more functional than spiteful.

Both these events are forms of Iconoclasm; the destruction of images. Jens Braavig, in his essay; Iconoclasm — Three Modern Cases, splits iconoclastic events into three types; Economic iconoclasm, Ideological iconoclasm and Religious iconoclasm. He notes that most acts of vandalism will, in fact, fit into more than one category.

In the modern, Western, political context we rarely see economic or religious iconoclasm. The value of these cultural objects simply isn’t high enough to warrant their plunder and religious fever has decreased to the point of being at the sidelines of political debate. But we do see Ideological iconoclasm and it stands in contrast to the historical examples. Instead of erasure, it’s visible public vandalism with only the alibi of expunging and eradicating.

The destruction of a statue of Saddam Hussain in Firdos Square

The demolition of Saddam Hussien’s statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad, in 2003 is an example of where the intention wasn’t to destroy the image but to note its destruction. Instead of erasing the image, in an attempt to forget, the plinth was left in place and a photograph of the toppling of the statue became the most widely shared image of the war. If American invaders had wished to delete that presentation of Saddam, perhaps not shooting high-quality photographs and distributing them to the world’s press may have been a start.


Recently I travelled to Germany, as they begun to prepare for federal elections. I noticed a common theme of posters being erected along roads and these boards quickly being vandalised, usually by damaging the faces of candidates.

These poster boards were not substantial advertising hoards, but instead pieces of wood and paper held together by zip-ties. Removing these posters would have been trivial for an attacker, but they choose to stab at the faces (and specifically the eyes) of candidates.

These were not great leaders being blotted from history like Queen Hatshepsut, but candidates for national government with a local profile and a small following. Where the entire image was destroyed or painted over, it was left clear who had been erased; either through visible edges or the remains of the original poster left scattered on the floor.

The same occurred in the UK. David Cameron looked down on us from billboards in 2010 and, rather than the billboards being stripped back or covered up, his face was annotated with moustaches or red eyes.

Ideological iconoclasm comes as two types; images destroyed so they are removed, or images destroyed so they are seen to be destroyed.

Why, in the modern political sphere, is there preference for performative destruction, rather than genuine erasure?

It stems from two ideas; one noble and one practical.

“Wake Up Choose SPD”

The noble reason is that Western democracies, even the most fraught and febrile, have an appreciation that we won’t ever ‘rid ourselves’ of the opposition. This is no longer a political option, so it stands to reason that it’s not an artistic option either.

The practical aspect is more deliberate and widespread. With the Internet, ubiquitous cameras and cheap travel, the people will learn about your political opposition, no matter how hard you try to erase them. With so many methods of communication, to be to able to seal off potential voters from the politicians who want to reach them is wishful thinking.

But by defacing their image in public, the visual power of that presentation is swung around a point and catapulted back out. The message of the poster goes from ‘This normal person is important’ to ‘This important person is hated and despised” when that unseen artists attacks that image . That power is transferred from the bearer of the image, and onto the hidden agitator punching through the paper, glue and wood.

A defaced poster becomes about two people. The person depicted, and the person implied by the damage. The first is distorted and injured. The second we understand through the damage; if it’s a hole we can see where they kicked through, if it’s ripped back then we can see their hands pulling back paper and if it’s drawn upon then we can imagine them, can in hand, working under a street lamp. Like Jackson Pollock’s work, we can inspect the impact of their work and immediately see how it was performed; with what energy and in which direction. In the current political climate, it’s important to ask who, out of those two people, has the public sympathy. With the rise of Popularism, I suspect that many people have more time for the petulant defacer, than they do for the elite who once adored that poster.

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