New Painting: ‘Gaza, Monsters of the Id. A painting in red, white and blue’ I turn this painting against the wall before I sleep, Jan 2024
Gaza, Monsters of the Id. A painting in red, white and blue. An exploration of how religious mysticism, ancient prophecy and modern statecraft interact in military conflicts. Acrylic paint on stretched canvas. January 2024 by Carl Gopalkrishnan.
Detail of Gaza, Monsters of the Id. A painting in red, white and blue. An exploration of how religious mysticism, ancient prophecy and modern statecraft interact in military conflicts. Acrylic paint on stretched canvas. January 2024 by Carl Gopalkrishnan.
This painting just needed to come out of me and onto the canvas. I wanted to post it as soon as I thought I'd exhausted it. It may still evolve a little. Too much emotion to focus on words as these things need to come out for all our mental health. I didn’t even set out to paint a ‘good’ painting, just to paint full stop & vent what I am feeling at present.
A difficult focus of my painting is the line of blue plastic improvised 'body bags' tied up at the head & feet of unidentified/unclaimed Palestinian corpses last counted early January as 23,000, not counting injured, maimed and the mass starvation and expected deaths from medical and food aid unable to get into Gaza due to the fighting. They form a horizon separating & connecting both the physical war from the spiritual & mythological war (or the Underworld).
There is a use of religious ancient prophecy, symbols from ancient amulets and also cultural artifacts such as the golliwog doll. Many of my paintings the last year have been playing with the colours that appear on major national flags that are active in geopolitics, the red, white and blue. When you think about it, it’s incredible how many of the more militaristic nations use those colours. Why, I wonder.
To be honest, I didn’t enjoy painting it. I usually prioritise a certain design balance and some ‘exits’ for optimism, but that’s not possible right now, the global changes are so seismic we can barely stand up straight. So, it’s an expression of these times and trying to process my thoughts and feelings as is everyone I know. Please try to find an expressive outlet during this horrendous time-and don’t judge yourself. Whatever works. For me it’s painting. It develops my earlier paintings about Gaza published in The Australian Fabians Review Issue 6, which came out in January 2024.
I have now replaced the photo with a proper scan. I hope it helps you process your thoughts and feelings as well. I come from a multifaith background and my faith heritage is very culturally and religiously diverse, and I have close friends who are agnostic and atheist too, but I hope at this time in history you will keep an open mind to the value of prayer in it’s broadest, most creative, most Just and most life-giving sense. If you are told that prayer is an activity that leaves some people out, then you may enjoy reading my essay in The Blake Society journal VALA in London where I discuss William Blake’s complex interpretation of good and evil in his 1790 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
If you can, please donate to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres whose staff are enduring dangerous safety risks to deliver basic emergency health care across Gaza and many other conflict zones in the world.
[Updated 1st May 2024]
Further Reading
Pray for Peace in Israel and Gaza - a 24-7 Prayer page
Summary of proceedings instituted 29 December 2023, officially known as ‘South Africa v. Israel’, concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention & international law in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
TheWashington Post’s 10-11-2023 article on the “Dahiya Doctrine”
Haaretz’s artcle on the “Hannibal Directive”
Download 2023 journal Vala to read my visual essay on William Blake’s 18th century poetry and the 2022 UK Defence Doctrine
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Donations
Médecins Sans Frontières int. GE
Breaking the Silence -Israel
American Friends Service Committee -US
UNRWA- UN
