The most expensive picture in the world: a scream
Angst has never been so valuable.
Edvard Munch’s The Scream has just fetched £74 million.
It is a visual representation of something we can all identify with- inner pain.
Has pain become the new ecstasy?
It sounds contradictory, but is that how it works?
For example- when we look pain in the eye- are we still subject to it?
When we embrace sadness are we still gripped within it?
When we declare weakness are we, in fact, weak or actually it’s opposite- strong?
If opposites occur simultaneously then it would suggest that in order to feel rich we need to experience feeling poor, on order to be happy we have to experience being unhappy and in order to be contented we need to experience discontent.
In the moment of surrender to the unfavourable feelings do we actually experience the opposite?
Is that why crying can induce such a euphoric state of peaceful wellbeing?
Is this why admitting failure feels like such a triumph
Or that hard work can feel so fulfilling?
The work of the Quest reveals beauty through ugliness, strength through weakness and dignity through humiliation.
By exploring what is going on beneath we raise ourselves to new heights.
By looking at the difficult issues we feel an incredible sense of ease.
Through investigation into shame we find that often hastily bandied term, pride.
