Studio Updates: While glazing my ceramic amulets, I reflect on how our superstitions continue to shape how we define war & peace

2024 Amulets: Love in a Cold Climate + On The Road

I created these new stoneware amulets to enhance the experience of my limited edition giclée prints. My first amulets are in greys and stone and burnt umber, all very rustic, for the ‘War and Peace’ 2023 print editions. These new amulets for 2024 have a different story altogether. They are glazed and high-fired using Western Australian stoneware clay and unlike the War & Peace ones they are all around 3.4cm in diameter. I made these ceramic amulets for each giclée print order and they took on a life of their own.

The amulets come from my readings in anthropology, history, war and religion (& its cousins religious alchemy, symbolism & superstition). Soldiers and civilians share secret lives of superstition and they often carry material objects for ‘luck’ and protection during operations and life’s challenging moments. I’ve used material objects in everything from my painting process to training people to responsibly use the intuitive skills they gain after practising certain creative exercises. Apart from that, I’m just loving working with the clay:)

There’s quite a lot of grey literature on this out there as opposed to serious research, as military personnel don’t like to talk about it, and our halls of learning look down their nose at anything not invented since the internet.

However, a thesis by J.St George, (2013, Smith College) is worth a read as are two other simple overviews of amulets that will give you a quick idea of how humans have used belief in material objects throughout the ages. I find it fascinating obviously and am research and designing amulets for forthcoming print editions.

Psychologically (or paranormally-take your pick and don’t apologise), humans have for thousands of years imbued material objects with desires for love, protection, hope, health and to connect with the Divine. The history of art has been shaped by these belief systems. I decided to create and give each buyer of my limited edition prints (for either their formally religious or culturally handed down superstitious belief systems) as another way to exercise our imagination which, as I have argued for over two decades, has the potential to unlock intuitive abilities to reshape our material world for the better.

In my print shop you can view my 2023 ‘War & Peace’ amulets which invoke the various honour principles from the ‘Ancient World’ and are raw and unglazed with tinted variations. The second new amulet is themed ‘Love in a Cold Climate’ (the brilliant Nancy Mitford) which reminds us to preserve emotions, small gestures, eccentricity, romance and to forgive our imperfections.The second is themed ‘On The Road’ (Crooked Roads from Blake’s Marriage meets Jack Kerouac) where I use my Noseman and the trident symbolically to balance our attractions & repulsions when we face epic challenges.

Clearly, I have great faith in the power of art to heal and I approach making amulets (sigils, talismans whatever you want to call them) with that sentiment. I’ve also trained people in creative thinking for decades using material objects, which is an under-rated process. More esoterically, I find amulets useful as ‘gateways’ to tap into our subconscious.

I know people are often time poor, so below are two accessible introductions to the history of amulets in different nations/cultures. I added a link to a thesis that explores our military culture’s use of amulets and superstition across all ranks too. The two short articles about amulets you might enjoy reading are by 1) Annie Thwaites in The Healing Talisman (2019, Science Museum Group Journal, UK) and 2) Dr Linda Heaphy in Jenn Perkins trauma therapy website.

High-fired ceramic amulets by Carl Gopalkrishnan “War & Peace. The Ancient World” 2023 limited edition print series. Amulets in three shades: Burnt Umber, Winter Grey, & Stone

Thwaites writes:

Just as the boundaries of what comprises an amulet are open enough to allow for a wide definition of healing, museums and academics should accept and recognise amulets and their contextual evolution as part of the history of healing. It is important, as far as possible, not to ‘other’ amulets – not think of them as bizarre, folkish pieces of the past, and instead recognise that they form parts of the broad and varied history of healing.[Read more]

Heaphy writes:

Scholars now classify amulets and talismans as a form of magic — a way of looking at the world based on the belief that a person can manipulate natural and supernatural forces for good or bad purposes (Campo 2009).

Julia St George writes in her thesis “The things they carry : a study of transitional object use among U.S. military personnel during and after deployment Julia St. George Smith College, 2019, Smith College, USA).

The purpose of this study was to explore how transitional objects are used during and after combat, and whether their use promotes resilience, reduces the effects of combat-related stress, and helps service members with "coming home" from war. The research looked for possible ties between objects with emotional significance that were carried during deployment and the effect the items had on service members’ mental health and wellbeing.

[Updated 25th December 2023]