We live in a highly visual culture — the image is king, and image-breaking is a key form of protest. But this is hardly new; idols, icons and iconoclasts have been part of the human story for millennia. We’re all familiar with these words though, even if they carry slightly different meanings outside religious contexts. So what’s going on?

Vrasidas Karalis is Professor of Byzantine and modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney.

Michael Galovic is an artist and iconographer who has spent at least five decades painting icons, mostly from his studio on the New South Wales Central Coast. A book of his work, called Icons + Art is available.

Sophie Matthiesson is Senior Curator of International Art, Auckland Art Gallery in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the initiating curator of Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World.

Jane Clark is Senior Research Curator at MONA — the Museum of Old and New Art — in Hobart Tasmania, where you can see the Heavenly Beings exhibition until Easter 2024.