Wednesday night, Sarah and I braved the supposed onset of Snowstorm 2007 and ventured downtown for Bodies…The Exhibition. I’ve been dying (Ha. Ha) to check the exhibit out, given all the hubabaloo and controversy surrounding it. While it was supposed to be over in December, and I feared that I had missed the chance to look at the preserved Asian men, the exhibit now has been extended through April 1, 2007. So I finally got my chance.
Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about what the exhibit was going to entail. A friend of mine had mentioned that it included baby fetuses that made his stomach turn. Now, I’m not much of a blood and guts kinda person. It all makes me want to puke my breakfast up. So, when I realized that I was about to spend an hour, willingly walking through an exhibit on the insides of our bodies, I wondered if I’d really lost it.
If you too have a weak stomach for gore, never fear. While the entire exhibit features real bodies that have been scientifically preserved and dissected, the still really just look like wax figures. Conclusion: it’s bearable for us weak-stomach types.
When observing the wax-like figures, it’s definitely the process that is the most fascinating. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the tendons, muscles, and organs you are seeing are real. According to the official Bodies exhibit Web site, the human specimens are, “first preserved according to standard mortuary science. The specimen is then dissected to show whatever it is that someone wants to display. Once dissected, the specimen is immersed in acetone, which eliminates all body water. The specimen is then placed in a large bath of silicone, or polymer, and sealed in a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, acetone leaves the body in the form of gas and the polymer replaces it, entering each cell and body tissue. A catalyst is then applied to the specimen, hardening it and completing the process.”
The bodies, on display with missing skin, exposed genitalia and other bodily organs, and sliced into cross-sectional pieces for our mere gawking pleasure, are created from a collection of more than 250 unclaimed Chinese men and women. The exhibit has become controversial, with one group of people shouting, “In the name of science!’ and the other claiming, “Violation! Human rights!” Whichever side you choose, Bodies is still worth seeing. Some could say, “Curiosity Killed the Cat.”
I was more than curious while wandering through the exhibit’s nine rooms, each split into different bodily functions such as Nervous System, Circulatory, Reproductive, and perhaps the most interesting, the Fetal Development room. I found myself actually taking the time to read all of the signs on the different body parts, and enjoying the facts posted on the walls, such as “The total surface area of the alveoli (tiny air sacs in the lungs) is the size of a tennis court” and “Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.” Thankfully, I was walking my way through the exhibit with all my 206 bones covered and still working.
The lighting throughout the exhibit is somewhat dim, allowing each human cadaver to illuminate and become the focus of each room. Next to each exposed body, is a sign indicating what you’re looking at by pointing out where the liver and stomach are, etc. A few details that surprised me the most…the entire nervous system basically sucked out of a body and lying on a table, what a fetus looks like when it develops a birth defect such as Spinal bifida or Anencephaly, and the appearance of a healthy lung vs. a smoker’s lung. (Yes. Jerks. The thought did cross my mind.) Sarah and I laughed like third graders at the balls, which weirdly hung lower than all the penises. Amazing and fascinating stuff if you ask me. One general theme seemed to follow us through each room though—How in the hell did they do that? It is definitely a scientific feat and not something you’d see everyday, so if you feel like you have the stomach for it, head down to 800 Pike Street and spring for the ticket. Trust me, it’s worth it.
