the Wound of Amfortas Can't be healed with a spear
by Kevin Lawler
$1,000
After listening to and reading about the Wagner opera Parsifal I was struck with the unhealing wound the character Amfortas endures. Wagner, for me, has become somewhat symbolic of far-right nationalism, which seems to be something that people turn to when they are uncomfortable processing parts of the world that challenge traditions they hold at the base of their spiritual core. I do believe that existentialism is inherent within human existence, but the questions of meaninglessness and the absence of an objective spiritual truth is too depressing for many. I thought of Cezanne, and Picasso as early pioneers of abstract representation, which is why the still life is included, and of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a reminder of the practical but very dangerous side of abstract thinking and its consequences in the real world. Which is why the figures in the background exist, as they were taken from a sermon held at the wreckage of a church in Nagasaki after it was bombed.