Liz and I went to the exhibit, Body Worlds 2 & the Three Pound Gem, today. It’s an exhibit of real honest-to-god human bodies, all “plastinated,” most of them posed in a sporting or liesurely manner. Skeltons, muscles, tendons, nerves, and an emormous amount of artistry. All models had given express consent to be included in this project in the event of their demise, and information about their lives (and deaths) was specifically not shared in the exhibit, because the individuals (in the personal sense) were not the focus.
It’s of course been a very controversial exhibit, but I was definitely impressed with its tasteful and educational nature. And, even though all of us were walking around and, basically, looking death in the face…oddly, it was better described as a celebration of life.
One of the first full-body displays you see, upon entering, is two men walking with a child skeleton. The man in front is posed amid-stride, and the man behind is in exactly the same pose. On second glance, the man in front is composed of only muscles and tendons, while the man behind is a skeleton with its internal organs, and the child is only a bare skelton. Upon further inspection, you realize that “both” men are in fact the same person, and great care had been taken to separate and reconstruct the structures of his body so that we can gain more insight to the inner workings and how these things cooperate to make us whole.
As you can see in the picture above, some displays were specifically arranged in dynamic illustration of sports, exercise, repose, just things we do. The skateboarder impressed the hell out of me. As did the yoga lady and the baseball player.
Of course, as one would imagine, there are glass cases with all kinds of other displays, like the comparison of a healthy lung to a smoker’s lung. There were also displays of malignant tumors, goiters, the effects of heart attacks and strokes, arteriosclerosis, and many others. Not twenty feet apart, I saw what cancer in the liver looks like, and what the aftermath of a massive coronary looks like. These are the ways my parents died. It’s amazing I handled it as well as I did.
Anyway, very good show, and it’ll be coming to Baltimore in February.