Shattered glass portrait erected in DC to celebrate Harris

A shattered glass portrait of Vice President Harris meant to depict her glass ceiling-shattering career was erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this week.

Groups seeking to memorialize Harris’s historic achievement of becoming the first Black and Asian American woman to hold the office of vice president in the United States unveiled the portrait, which is 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide, in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday.

View from the Lincoln Memorial pic.twitter.com/vTKJYzwSmW

— Isabel Lara (@isalara) February 5, 2021

“This will just be a wonderful visual emblem of this moment in time and hopefully people will reflect a little bit on all the barriers that have been broken by her election,” Holly Hotchner, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum, a co-sponsor of the project, told The Associated Press.

Harris has broken barriers not only as vice president but also as the first woman and person of color to serve as district attorney of San Francisco and the first Black person to serve as California’s attorney general and to represent the state in the Senate.

The project was commissioned by creative agency BBH New York, which hired Swedish artist Simon Berger.

Extraordinary >> NEW Portrait of @VP Kamala Harris at the Lincoln Memorial…
The method of portraiture? HAMMER TO GLASS.
By Simon Berger & Celeste Sloman#GlassCeilingBreaker @WUSA9 @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/3kIyqpnAtS

— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) February 5, 2021

Berger, who specializes in glass artistry, used a photo of Harris taken by New York photographer Celeste Sloman as inspiration for his work. He hammered into laminated glass in order to create the shattered effect that forms the portrait, AP reported.

“I hit the glass directly with the hammer, so that cracks and impacts occur,” Berger wrote to the news outlet in an email. “Hard hits create abstraction and I ‘paint’ with targeted fine hits.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris Glass Ceiling Breaker” by Simon Berger.

Shipped from Switzerland. Installed at the Lincoln Memorial until Saturday.

It’s sublime, especially at night. #kamalaharris #simonberger #ceilingbreaker @womenshistory pic.twitter.com/xjVbYDJwVz

— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) February 5, 2021

Harris is reportedly aware of the installation; however, it is unknown whether she will make a visit to see it. The portrait will remain at the Lincoln Memorial until Saturday evening, when it will return to New York, the AP reported.

Public viewings after Saturday have yet to be determined, according to the AP.