Building on our earlier project, where we altered the eyes of portraits to disrupt perception, we now turn our focus to some of the most famous self-portraits in art history. By taking these iconic representations of identity and disassembling them, we push further into the idea of how visual identity can be manipulated, distorted, and reconstructed.

In this phase, we selected renowned self-portraits from various eras-images that have come to define not just the artists themselves, but also how we view identity through art. Using a fixed grid, we broke these images down into their essential parts, creating a structured framework that both guided and restricted the reassembly process. The result is a deliberate dissection of identity, where recognisable faces are fragmented and pieced back together in ways that feel disjointed and unsettling.

Though the final result may seem incomplete or rough, that is intentional. This stage of the project is not about refinement but rather about using the process of disassembling and reassembling to explore the malleability of self-representation. These reconstructed self-portraits offer a glimpse into how identity can be reshaped by external forces-both through the artist’s hand and the viewer’s perception.

Through this project, we reflect on how identity, particularly as captured in art, is never fixed. Even the most iconic images can be deconstructed and reformed, suggesting that self-portraits are as fluid as the identities they represent. We don’t see this work as final, but as an ongoing experiment in understanding how we reconstruct and reimagine ourselves, both artistically and digitally.