A trip to the Body Worlds 2 plastination show at the monolithic Ontario Science Center starts innocently enough with a viewing of various human bones preserved behind glass, descriptions of their former function neatly printed on place cards.
We ogle them interestedly, scientifically. We try not to lean on the glass as we discuss what we remember from biology class. It is the ultimate voyeurism; our insides stripped of flesh, laid bare for us to examine.
At first the show seems like a homage to our singled-out parts, how they cooperate with all the other parts, how complex and beautiful the human design truly is. But after these initial rooms, we are thrown into a decidedly more intensified encounter with the human body.
Mounted on the wall, in a one millimeter slice, is a perfect cross-section of an otherwise intact human male. That’s when things start to get sketchy.
The next room is not only filled with plastinated organs, but corpses splayed of their skin, propped up on metal splints, posed in various positions of suspended activity; skateboarding, skiing, ice-skating, contemplating à la Rodin.
What is plastination, you ask? If it weren’t for independent research, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, since nowhere in this massive exhibit is there a single elucidation of the process. You have to buy the book. That is, if you still have any cash left after the hefty $25 ticket price.
The book, and the autopsy-as-art viewing, is all made possible by the notorious German scientist Gunther von Hagens. Von Hagens invented Plastination, (a business for hire), to halt decomposition of the body after death, thus preserving it for “didactic eternity.”
The technology replaces fat and body fluids with reactive polymers, effectively impregnating anatomical specimens with liquid plastic.
“I was looking at a collection of specimens embedded in plastic. It was the most advanced preservation technique then, where the specimens rested deep inside a transparent plastic block. I wondered why the plastic was poured and then cured around the specimens rather than pushed into the cells, which would stabilize the specimens from within and literally allow you to grasp it.”
And that’s precisely what von Hagens did. Not only did he skin and plastinate whole bodies, but combining this with an archaeological flesh-dig, he was able to isolate muscles, organs, capillaries, delicate vein systems, spinal chords, etc.
The exhibit is a smorgasbord of body parts held up on posts, sealed under glass, splayed and extrapolated on podiums for all to grasp. The difficulty, once the scientific curiosity is engaged, is to remember the macabre reality that these were once people who now look an awful lot like smoked fish.
Equally dubious, is the doctor’s efforts to make the specimens artistic. One has to wonder why von Hagens attempted to normalize the corpses by sewing their eyebrows and nipples back on, placing them into sporty poses. Maybe it was to have us forget their deadness? Or maybe he wanted to lean the thing away from the tragic, toward the comic? “Don’t worry that he has no skin, he’s still got eyebrows!”
Or maybe the professor just has a flare for the artistic. It is interesting, if bewildering, to note that von Hagens not only patented the plastination process, but he copyrights the specimens, (that is, the bodies formerly known as humans), and signs them as original works.
Apparently they must be art, since they were recently seen at the Guggenheim.
So where did von Hagens get the bodies, each worth about $200,000 on the medical market, anyway? Apparently they were donated, by all descriptions “enthusiastically”. But despite that explanation, a barrage of reports and investigations into the origin of the bodies has been underway since 2001.
The Taipei Times recently reported that at least two of the bodies were discovered to have bullet holes in their heads — the standard method China uses for execution. The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported that prosecutors in Heidelberg, Germany are pursuing these allegations to determine if they have grounds to launch a full-scale investigation into possible human rights violations.I
Ironically, what seems to shock onlookers the most in this extensive exhibit, is the massive, petrified, sliced-in-three camel (and its baby) on a faux-Sahara display. Luckily for them, the woman with a peeled back belly, revealing her unborn fetus, was not amongst the other specimens being shown in the “Prenatal Development Room.”
But just when you thought we’d exhausted every last ethical question, there is still the matter of MERCH. Yes, people, get your plastinated organ keychains, your skinless cadaver mouse pads, t-shirts, cd-roms and children’s toys! “Explore Your Inner Life” reads my personal favourite slogan.
Forbes recently reported that in 2004, BodyWorlds pulled in $20 million in ticket and merchandise sales. The exhibit has opened to sellout crowds (18 million people and counting) in 32 cities around the globe, at $24.95 a pop.
But despite the CSI gore-factor, alleged corpse trafficking charges and questionable copyrighting of biological materials, Body Worlds is a success.
Dr. Death, as von Hagens has been affectionately nicknamed in Europe, says he sleeps well at night. And in some absurd meta-irony, has filed a civil suit against Premier Exhibitions, the Atlanta competitor that toured plastinated parts from the salvaged Titanic, claiming copyright and trademark infringement as well as “deceptive practices.” In von Hagens own words, “Business has no morals.”
This article was originally published in Feb/06 issue of The Grapevine.
Hi, I’m Hansi and i am currently studying the human body in my Bio classes, we have just begun the study of muscles & bones etc. My Aunt had told me about this place and how she had gone to see it in Aussie when she was last there. Ever since she told me i was absolutely fascinated by the idea. After seeing these pictures i can’t wait to go!
The displays are just amazing! In Bio we would always be disecting something either a rat, a pig’s foot etc. We cut, we examine we draw diagrams of OTHER animals, but never have i seen a truly naked human in my life! Our own species stripped and exposed to the very bone right infront of our eyes.
I would do anything to be able to go and see this work of art!
I am always at war with science and morality,this objective cold sort of inhuman view of humans as nothing but a bag of blood and bones has always depressed me.And yet im very interested in science itself but abandon it when it loses its wisdom or feeling or in this case endevours mostly to profit.
I always think of that japanese proverb then ” knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on the back of an ass”
The exhibt is the very type of science Wordsworth pondered about long ago when he wrote
“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–
We murder to dissect.”