Talismanic

Art that draws on amulets, charms and power objects, borrowing their materials and charge without being made for ritual use.

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About

Talismans and amulets are objects believed to protect, heal or bring luck, from the Eye of Horus charms of ancient Egypt to Ottoman shirts inscribed with Qur'anic verses and small numbered grids. Power figures from the Kongo region of Central Africa held medicines in sealed cavities, and the type known as nkondi was studded with nails and blades as oaths were sworn and disputes settled.

Many modern artists borrow this charged look without making objects for ritual use. Renée Stout cast her own body as a Kongo-inspired power figure in Fetish #2 (1988). Gonçalo Mabunda welds decommissioned weapons from Mozambique's civil war into masks and thrones, turning instruments of harm into emblems of survival. Dineo Seshee Bopape builds installations from soil, herbs, clay and charcoal. Look for nails, beads, mirrors, sealed pouches and materials chosen for what they are believed to hold.