As a continuation of our exploration into global icons, we now turn our focus to America, a country known for its ability to craft larger-than-life figures, particularly in the political arena. While much of the world associates the United States with pop culture and celebrity, we decided to step away from that and explore two of America’s most prominent figures outside of entertainment: Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy (JFK).

These two presidents represent different eras but share a common thread-both were seen as symbols of hope, progress, and idealised leadership. In the American psyche, there is often a drive to craft presidential figures into something greater than human, embodying a level of “super greatness” that, in reality, is impossible to achieve. This may be why the American presidential race is so steeped in spectacle, theater, and enormous financial investment-attempting to create something that simply does not exist. Nor can in a mortal world.

In this project, we took iconic images of Obama and JFK and applied our signature deconstruction and reconstruction techniques. By breaking down their portraits into smaller fragments and reassembling them, we created new composite images that reflect the myth of the “American icon.” From a distance, these portraits seem whole, but upon closer inspection, they reveal the fragmented nature of the idealisation process.

This project invites viewers to reconsider the larger-than-life personas crafted by the American political machine, exploring the tension between the human and the icon, and the impossible standards placed on leaders in the pursuit of greatness. Through these manipulated images, we raise questions about identity, fame, and the relentless drive to create figures who transcend reality.