Conceptual piece aims to inspire, heal and soothe

The virtue of conceptual art is that it makes you think, even if you don't want to; the ideas it tries to communicate carry more weight than the actual commodity of art, as in Brian Snapp's installation piece, "Curing," at the Utah Museum of Fine Art through March 26.

Snapp, an assistant professor of art at the University of Utah, has created an environment — a room monopolized by chairs, piles of salt, ceramic sculptures carved with cryptic symbols and hanging from meat hooks — to help us see that we must move toward a more compassionate lifestyle as a society.

The piece began as an effort on the artist's part to move in that direction. "And the installation is set up to allow anybody who would like to participate to think that way and to move that way," Snapp said.

Recognizing this move as a major shift in many people's attitudes, Snapp's environment presents "images, signs and symbols on blocks of clay to trigger ideas towards healing and outward compassion."

Participants reflect on these images, signs and symbols while resting in one of the sundry chairs positioned around the installation.

According to the artist, the image of assorted healing plants works on several levels (as do all the objects in the installation). Besides being purging agents, the artist has included soothing tonics such as Spikenard in the ceramic blocks.

"And then there are the symbols," he said. "Some are hobo symbols that say 'this is a good place' or 'friendly people live here.' " He also has Buddhist symbols and Reiki symbols (Reiki symbols are Sanskrit-derived Japanese forms).

It was the Reiki symbol for "Long Distance Healing" that started the artist on the path to heal the world through compassion, action and art.

Snapp discussed his art with several museum visitors after they had interacted with the installation and found they liked "the fact that they were able to physically get into the piece, which I think, is one of the best things about the work, that you get inside it."

Some conceptual art fails because the viewer is not familiar enough with the contexts of the artist's message — not so with "Curing." The metaphors of Snapp's installation are sufficiently understandable and the message is one we all need to adopt.

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