Body Worlds 2

[building babel]

Has anyone seen this thing yet? What did you think of it?

There's a plastinated man, arranged in neatly spaced sections, in a display case in BCE Galleria - as a "teaser" to the show at the Science Centre. He used to be six foot six of death row terror before he was given a lethal injection. Now he looks like slices of Parma ham.

 

[spmarshall]

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm in the area of BCE Place - I will check it out for sure now that you mentioned it.

 

[building babel]

I don't think he's typical of the dudes in the main show up at the Science Centre.

 

[miketoronto]

I got free tickets, so I am going to see it.

 

[adma]

One thing's for sure: those subway ads'll do a lot to dissuade people from eating Montreal-style smoked meat sandwiches on public transit

 

[EnviroTO]

What is the origin of the bodies on display? Are you serious about the guy being on death row? I don't think I could see the exhibit without knowing for sure that the bodies were all voluntarily donated with the knowledge that they would be used in an exhibit. I wouldn't consider myself an extremely supersticious person but I do have some respect for the dead.

 

[building babel]

The 'minder' of the exhibit was explaining to people that the dude was once a death row inmate. That doesn't prevent Parma Ham Man from having wanted to be plastinated and displayed after he'd died.

I'm thinking of leaving myself to the forum, so I can show up at meets ... forever.

 

[interchange42]

I went to the show a couple of weeks ago.

For my companion, the scariest thing there was a smoker's lung beside a normal lung. For me, a bit unnerving was the most obese of the donated bodies, sliced up like the fattiest steak you have ever seen. Hopefully Dave will quite smoking. I'm trying to remember the layers of fat when I chose what to eat.

Overall however, the show did not creep me out - I had expected it to. Full of plastic, and with no hint of movement (like in Hollywood horror flicks) the cadavers, stripped of skin, also seemed to be stripped menace or sadness or any cry of "help!" The exhibit does look benign and feel educational. It is entirely fascinating.

My one complaint: many of the cadavers are displayed in athletic poses atop a plinth. On each plinth there is a metallic tag with the name of the pose etched into it: "The Soccer Player", below which is also engraved the signature of the show's creator, Gunther von Hagens. For Von Hagens to take exclusive credit for each body, and for him to put his name out there so often, taints the scientific aspect of the show with PT Barnum style hucksterism.

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[building babel]

Perhaps he's inviting comparison between Classical Greek statues like the Discus Thrower - with their emphasis on serene perfection - and real human bodies?

In a way, if he's arranged these cadavers in artful poses, isn't he a creator and they the equivalent to inert marble?

 

[interchange42]

I would compare the body posing more to film directing than sculpting. Usually the film actors get some billing too. Actually, even a block of marble will usually be identified as "marble" at an art gallery. At Body Worlds 2 though, Von Hagen's ego seems to be running somewhat amok.

I still say go see it; it's worthwhile, and hopefully unlike anything you've ever seen.

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[building babel]

Babel's looking forward to this show.

My father worked, briefly, with the historical Hunterian Collection in London in the early 1950's. I was introduced to the sight of ancient pickled fetuses at a very early age.

Later, Dad ran a company that produced anatomical teaching models for medical students and hospitals, which he designed. When we left England for Canada in 1970, he left a few discarded rubber hearts, lungs, and miscellaneous body parts in the attic of our house. We heard later that the new owners had found them and called the police.

 

[EnviroTO]

We heard later that the new owners had found them and called the police.

They couldn't differentiate between rotting body parts and their plastic equivalents?

 

[building babel]

Rubber actually. Maybe they stumbled across them in the half light of the attic and were spooked, I dunno. Covered with a bit of dust they might've been convincing. Our former neighbours wrote to tell us about it later.