This work is based on a portrait of Erich Honecker, the former General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and head of state of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Such portraits once hung in many public institutions across in the country. Although the upper half of the face has been erased, former East Germans can still instantly recognise the figure.

The artist first saw this particular image at the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former prison run by the Stasi—the GDR’s secret police, known for its surveillance and repression. The portrait probably still hangs there today as a critical reminder of the GDR’s authoritarian past.