Health problems? Art cures all

AT THE back of the Art Healing Ministry, there was a woman offering refreshments: “Would you like art-infused water or vodka? Botticelli or Lichtenstein flavour?”

With a dash of liquid Botticelli burning in my throat I explored the health-giving wares. The Art Healing Ministry is a pop-up store on Thompson Street in New York City’s SoHo, run by Alexander Melamid, a Russian conceptual artist. His previous projects include teaching elephants how to paint and creating work based on polling people on what they wanted to see in a painting (both of these with his former partner Vitaly Komar). On opening night the space was full of girls with red lipstick and nice shoes. The party spilled onto the sidewalk, where Mr Melamid held court, gesturing wildly, his frizzy grey hair in constant motion.

Mr Melamid has created an environment where art, commerce, medicine, irony and earnestness intersect. Suffering from prostatic hyperplasia? Try the art anal infuser (an enema bulb stuck to a VHS tape recorder, put behind glass). In need of something less invasive? Book a seat in the art therapy chair (pictured). There you may enjoy a private session with the artist, and have works of art projected on to your face.

This is a text-heavy project. Mr Melamid mixes medical jargon with new-age snake-oil healing exuberance, recalling the back of a Vitamin Water bottle or something you might buy in a yoga store. The anal art-infusing sculpture “in combination with the alpha blocker reduces the risk of acute urinary retention (AUR) and prostate surgery,” naturally. On the website, Mr Melamid asserts that “we all know the power of Art, its power to galvanize, stimulate, rouse, exhilarate, soothe and enlighten. And NOW the power of art to HEAL is REVEALED! For Art Lovers, Art is a diving rod along the path of life’s Spiritual Journey.”

Of course, healing comes at a price: everything you see is for sale, and not just the artworks but T-shirts, votive candles and those art water-chargers ($25). It works well in SoHo, a shopping mecca where one can buy cosmetics, spa treatments, clothing, juice cleanses and art, and recalls Claes Oldenburg’s 1961 “The Store”, where the artist opened up a storefront to sell his sculpture directly.

Perhaps most importantly, the exhibition is funny. The work prompts smiles and even audible laughter. “The truth is funny,” Mr Melamid told the New York Times. Indeed. As I moved in closer to examine the possibility of procuring a box of happiness ($150), a woman in eccentric dress pushed in front of me, snapping pictures. “I have to show this to my artist friends,” she said excitedly. "They’re going to get a kick out of this—this is just the best thing I've ever seen.”

The Art Healing Ministry is open for business through June 30th, and will potentially move location