-Flayed and Plasticized-
Combining elements of art and science, the Body Worlds exhibit currently touring the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia delivers slabs of human flesh infused with plastic. Some are sliced thinner than prosciutto, and are pressed under glass. Others are arrayed in their human form - sans skin - and posed for action.
It is part art, and part science, but anyone looking for a deeper understanding of either will be disappointed. Science text books peel back layers, as do many computer programs. Seeing this in 3D without attending gross anatomy may be of value, but if you remove the mess - not to mention the skin that puts a personal face on the deceased - the crowds are free to be as clinical as they were yesterday. No one became queasy there, not even the small children.
Which isn't to say the exhibit didn't confuse them. One figure, entitled "Teacher" gripped a piece of chalk. I heard the young child next to me call for his mother and say: "Why did they make this one a teacher if he's a man?"
Really, if we've learned anything here, it's that people are shallow enough to ignore the body donors when their beauty is more than skin deep. Although more than a few people seemed to enjoy smirking over the plasticized penises. Others complained that there were too many dudes among the dead.
Note: nearly all of the body donors had the blackened lungs of chronic smokers. Sexy, no?
Ultimately, I was glad I saw it, although I would like to have posted some of my own photos. Sadly, they've got crap to sell you and won't allow competition. The high point of this project? Probably the plastination process, which is incredibly advanced preservation craft.
The low point? Gunther Van Hagens also had the temerity to put a hat on one of the corpses in order to "further blur the line between life and death."
That was just stupid.
It is part art, and part science, but anyone looking for a deeper understanding of either will be disappointed. Science text books peel back layers, as do many computer programs. Seeing this in 3D without attending gross anatomy may be of value, but if you remove the mess - not to mention the skin that puts a personal face on the deceased - the crowds are free to be as clinical as they were yesterday. No one became queasy there, not even the small children.
Which isn't to say the exhibit didn't confuse them. One figure, entitled "Teacher" gripped a piece of chalk. I heard the young child next to me call for his mother and say: "Why did they make this one a teacher if he's a man?"
Really, if we've learned anything here, it's that people are shallow enough to ignore the body donors when their beauty is more than skin deep. Although more than a few people seemed to enjoy smirking over the plasticized penises. Others complained that there were too many dudes among the dead.
Note: nearly all of the body donors had the blackened lungs of chronic smokers. Sexy, no?
Ultimately, I was glad I saw it, although I would like to have posted some of my own photos. Sadly, they've got crap to sell you and won't allow competition. The high point of this project? Probably the plastination process, which is incredibly advanced preservation craft.
The low point? Gunther Van Hagens also had the temerity to put a hat on one of the corpses in order to "further blur the line between life and death."
That was just stupid.
posted by Benedict | 4:17 PM
3 Comments:
I've been curious about this exhibit ever since it debuted (in Germany, I think) a few years ago. Then, a professor I know gave a presentation on it back in September. Her focus was the peeled pregnant woman and fetus, which may or may not have appeared in the exhibit you saw, but which is usually kept behind a curtain. All very fascinating and weird... And I agree with your assessment of the hat!
They did have the pregnant woman and fetus. It was kept behind a curtain in an antechamber that seemed almost religious, with the pregnant women with fetus lying on her side on what could be called an alter, and the walls lined with glass boxes containing fetuses at every stage of growth. And in the center? Vials of zygotes.
I saw it in LA. I was seriously underwhelmed. Some of it struck me as racist (although I can't remember what -- I must've blocked it out), and some as just plain stoopid, like the corpse smoking.
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