They're Made of Peeeoooople!
Warning: this posting is a set of reflections (and an image) from the traveling exhibition of Body Worlds—the preserved corpse exhibition. If you're really squeamish, you might not want to read it. If you're only somewhat squeamish, you might just want to turn off images in your browser.
I spent a good portion of Sunday at the Ontario Science Centre's Exhibition of Body Worlds 2, the exhibit of human bodies that have undergone the process of plastination, or replacement of water and fats in tissues with polymers. The wikipedia entry provides a pretty good concise description of the exhibit. I have to say that plastination is an amazing technique, both in terms of visible results (the exhibit), as well as the fact that even microstructures are preserved. Overall, I was very impressed by the exhibit, and it did not seem as disturbing as I have heard it might be: the process makes the body appear to be a plastic model more than anything else.
Oh, in case this is far enough down on the page, here's an example photo from a postcard.
There were two aspects of the exhibit mixed together: glass cased individual organs, and those spectacular full-body plastinations that are typically shown on the news. I think that the organs provided more of a learning experience--they demonstrated the pathology of polycystic kidney disease, cirrhosis of the liver, enlarged hearts, coal miners' and smokers' lungs, uterine tumors, etc., in close-up detail. I bought the audiotour, and there was a lot of useful information on it.
The full body plastinations were bodies posed in various 'active' ways, such as ski jumping, fencing, figure skating, and skateboarding. I found them a lot less informative: although the placards said they were demonstrating this or that portion of the musculature, I think that if any part of the exhibit could be considered "exploitative," this would be it. The "creative" dissections (such as 'the angel'—a woman with two flaps of her back lifted up like angels' wings) seem more of a gimmick than actually providing greater understanding. In hindsight, it reminded me of the way that Hannibal Lecter disembowels the correction officer and spreads his viscera out across the cell like wings in Silence of the Lambs. On the other hand, based on my reading on the web, these types of 'artistic' displays have been part of anatomy illustrations/demonstrations for much of its history.
There were a couple of full body plastinations which did provide useful information, such as the body demonstrating how surgical implants such as bone stretchers, forceps, and mending plates work. Also, there was an obese (300 lbs) man that they cut into vertical (sagittal) sections. He had this complete "rind" of subcutenaceous fat all the way around him... it was pretty amazing. There were some full bodies showing individual systems (nervous, circulatory): the technique used and results were pretty amazing. Another plastination was of a pregnant woman, cut open to show the fetus (five months?): it was actually quite touching, knowing that she donated her body, knowing that she was likely to succumb to cancer before giving birth.
There has been some vocal criticism of the exhibit, such as one art critic accusing it of being a "shameless Victorian freak show", or for its shock value. However, these people did sign over their bodies knowing what use they would be put to; there have been some accusations of non-consenting donors (hospital patients from Kyrgyzstan and executed prisoners from China), but current reports seem to refute the accusations.
Personally, I guess I didn't overcome the abstraction barrier of these being people for much of the exhibition. Also, being non-religious, with a distinctly materialist view of the world, I was not offended based on cultural baggage--I wonder if more religious people object on the grounds that this exhibit takes away from the grandeur of creation, or more on the sanctity of the body?
On a less serious note, while I was looking at some of the body dissections, I couldn't help from playing narration from Good Eats in my head:
Alton: So one rib cage, three ribs, really. I mean you've got baby backs, spare ribs, what is this?
Butcher: This right here is the chest bone you take off the spare rib right here ...
Alton: Uh, huh.
Butcher: ... and that's what make it a Saint Louis cut rib.
Well, as Flanders and Swann put it, "If [god] had meant us not to eat people, he wouldn't have made us of meat!" Remember, I'm the guy who indicates where pork loin comes from by showing off parts of my torso. Hey… that gives me a really cool idea for a full-body tattoo…
posted by Bats @ 11:01 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
that's awesome. i hope to catch this sometime soon, somewhere. that was actually the most interesting description of the exhibition i've read, and there's been a *lot* of press coverage in various places. sw3333t.
jopesche
This exhibit didn't appeal much to me, and seemed super expensive (though I suppose it was about as much as MoMA in NYC, say).
Was photographing permitted? [I'm assuming no, since your only picture is of a postcard?]
Did you drive yourself to Scarberia?
what I find really intriguing is my own reaction: equal parts "wow, that's amazing!" and "I think I'm going to be sick." I'd probably do better with the isolated organs than whole bodies. Still, I'm a scientist, and relatively unencumbered by thoughts of an afterlife, so why does this make me feel really queasy? It's kinda like when I'm eating a chicken wing and notice how the muscles are connected similarly to those in my own arms...
Maybe it's a by-product of growing up in an all-meat-comes-pre-cut-and-shrinkwrapped society.
p.s.
Yay Flanders & Swann quote!
Of course now I have that song going through my head---
"They'll eat you anyway, even if they can't digest your opinions!"
Was photographing permitted? [I'm assuming no, since your only picture is of a postcard?]
That's right; they were pretty anal-retentive about no photos, no food or drinks, no bathroom breaks, cell phones off, etc.
Did you drive yourself to Scarberia?
Nah... went with a few friends who did the driving.
p.s. Yay Flanders & Swann quote!
Yeah, thanks for introducing me to them! I can now never listen to Mozart's Horn Concerto in E flat major without mentally singing along ;).
I once went to a concert and unbeknownst to me it was on the program. Folks nearby in the audience may have wondered why I was turning red & so obviously trying to avoid laughing.
For those of you listening at home, you can probably hear snippets on amazon.com... [buy it! you'll *like* it!]
sorry for the long read but there are things you need to know
The Amazing (freak show) human body exhibition
by Simon Willace Thursday May 11, 2006 at 04:04 PM
simonwillace@hotmail.com
It is hard these days to get upset about any one subject, because there are so many things happening both locally and overseas that just should not be happening. Prioritising or ignoring has become an individual choice. The list is quite endless, but for everyone crime against humanity must come close to the top of the list.
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Have these thoughts ever crossed your mind?
“I’d like to slice a gaping hole in my arm just to look at what’s inside and I would like to see what I would look like if I was skinned alive.”
If the idea appeals to you but you would rather see the insides of someone else, coming to town soon is a exhibition that will excite you.
Billed as ‘The Amazing Human body’ a touring freak show from China that has already been seen in Sydney and in South Australia with out the slightest negative media., it will, I promise you , turn stomachs and raise more than just a few eyebrows.
Shows like it have been touring the world for many years with names like Body Works, bodies or The inside Story each have much the same promotion. The advertisement has a happy smiling skinless stiff on the cover with words to the effect that the show is educational.
The voyeurs attracted by the advertisements selling ‘The Amazing human body’ will be after guts gore and entrails and will not be disappointed.
On display are 18 intact and perfectly preserved human remains, which are quite approachable, they are not encased in glass or behind barriers or guarded by over zealous security guards. Assorted plasticised body parts in plastic cases are also on table displays while human bodies in various states are in the centre of the room, all in an art gallery like setting.
The show is easy to navigate as the ticket price comes with a portable audio guide, which explains to the individual each sculpture in gory detail as you pass by the scenes.
There’s, a bicycle, a chess set, a bow and arrows and a tennis racket, used as props to make the attractions look more pleasing. As I said, it is a freak show, with each body in a macabre masquerade, posed to make them seem just a bit more life like.
There are mutilated human remains playing tennis, ridding a bike and posed in allsorts of amusing positions with swinging genitals and toothy grins to give punters value for dollars.
All 18 bodies on display were living and breathing only two years ago.
The process of plastication takes months once the victim stops wriggling, factory workers replace bodily fluids with polymers useing pumps and vacuums before catalysing the resin with hardener as the body transforms into its plasticized form. Colours and glass eyes are added to give the impression of personality and the exhibit is posed and ready for the show.
The process sometimes traps fatty residues inside the exhibit that later leak. So you are advised not to stand too close while viewing the stiff as it may harm your health to do so. ( that is, if your not sick enough to begin with)
The exhibition is more than just a freak show, as some find pornography educational. This industry however exploits the system that has allowed medical science to obtain human specimens for research.
The buying and selling of donated corpses and body parts, from private donations or medical collections, is legal in many countries. However, leading medical bodies in Britain said Von Hagen’s activities raised ethical questions. 'We feel uncomfortable with the money aspect of it,' said a representative for the British Medical Association.
In Britain, it is hard to obtain even a real bone skeleton today and many medical institutes make do with plastic replicas. Dr Graham Peddie makes it clear that people are no longer donating their bodies to science “these days” he says, they donate body parts, a cornea here or a Kidneys if your lucky, people die waiting for transplants as few seem willing to leave the whole body to science anymore. I’m surprised that Von Hagan has no problem with his supplys”
A representative for the Nuffield Foundation said: 'Human tissue should not be bought and sold in international trades between wholesalers. traditionally whole bodies are exchanged for a nominal cost as they become available.. Body parts, anatomical specimens or preserved bodies should not be displayed in connection with public entertainment amusement or art.'
Despite the macabre nature of the attraction, millions have flocked to see Von Hagen’s exhibition. In Japan, where it was on display from 1996 to 1998, it attracted more than 2.5 million visitors. In Berlin last year, 1.4 million people saw it in seven months.
Overseas the exhibition has attracted demonstration from women’s groups who streaked through exhibition centres in protest, outraged that the exhibit had examples of men only. After which a female specimen was hastily acquired and the exhibition now boasts one woman amongst 18 men to appease the equality hardliners.
The exhibition encountered the wrath of the Falun Gong.. Its members allege that the Chinese government is responsible for the ‘disappearance’ of anywhere between 500 000 and 2 million of Falun Gong followers and wanted assurances that the bodies displayed in world wide exhibits were not dead Falun Gong members.
Unfortunately no records matrialized identifying the corpses used in the exhibition or can identify corpses sold by the Chinese government so no assurances could be verified, nevertheless the organiser assured all concerned that the bodies used were unclaimed or donated and were not executed prisoners.
In China it is not illegal to use the bodies of political or criminal prisoners for commercial purposes. This is how a government backed trade has developed into an body parts industry, which might now included Hagan’s Horror show.
In the transplant, industry body parts are exported and in allied medical services westerners are enticed with guarantees of available hearts kidneys and lungs and travel to china where transplants are received in Chinese hospitals. Amnesty International estimates that China now executs at least 3,400 people annualy.
In an effort to improve cost-efficiency, Chinese provincial authorities are beginning to introduce so-called mobile execution vans. These are intended to replace the traditional method of execution by firing squad in which prisoners are taken to an execution ground and made to kneel with hands cuffed before being shot in the head.
Officials in Yunnan province explained that only four people are required to carry out the execution in the mobile vans: the executioner, one member of the court, one official from the procuratorate and one forensic doctor.
Eighteen mobile executions vans, converted 24-seater buses, are being distributed to all intermediate courts and one high court in Yunnan province. The windowless execution chamber at the back contains a metal bed on which the prisoner is strapped down.
In this way a prisoner sentence to death can be executed in transit between court hearing and trasplant hospitals ensuring that the corpse is fresh, a surplus could be delivered to one of of Dr Gunther Von Hagan’s two Plastination factory’s in the coastal city of Dalian .
‘Body works’, ‘Body World’ and ‘The Amazing human body’ Exhibitions now touring in Australia are trading names owned or associated with Dr. Gunther von Hagen’. An East German whose chequered career has included long terms spent behind bars himself.
The company uses many names throughout the world and issues licences to so called copycat operators but all exhibits are created in Von Hagan’s Chinese factories and are exhibited under licences offered only through him.
Hagan now living in China is the inventor of the plastication process Registered trademark all rights reserved and holds copyright, he retains sole control over the process. He has always vigorously denied using executed prisoners for his touring freak shows and has insisted that each one has been donated.
In 2004 he was accused of using the bodies of political prisoners in a similar exhibition, ‘Body Worlds’ - charges which were later denied. Body worlds did, however, return bodies from their exhibition to China after the 7 were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads.
The fact that his body shop factories are now located in the Chinese coastal city of Dalian tells a different story to the one Hagan likes to spin. Usually manufacturers like to situate their factories near to a source of raw materials and it seems Hagan’s industry is no different.
Thousands of processed human bodies have already been treated in Hagan’s body shops since his business developed the concept of human exhibits and now hundreds of finished works in many exhibitions tour the world.
'The bodies in all exhibitions are disproportionately young males. In China, the most likely source for large numbers of young male bodies would be prisons or labour camps. The unproven allegation that the bodies are executed prisoners is made stronger when the single child policy is taken into account.
In force for many years, the one child policy puts the bereaved parents in the picture as the potential suppliers of Hagan’s industry. if Hagan is to be believed and we are to accept that the bodies are not executed prisoners then parents of the dead must have been involved in the contractual agreements.
This arrangement suggest that the bereaved parents of an only child would willingly say goodbye to their son as he is skinned and filled with plastic and sent on a world tour to make Hagan some money.
In other interviews, Hagan’s representatives have said that the bodies are all the unclaimed corpses of the destitute or from insane asylums in china, but if true this would mean the source has limitless supplies competing with the Chinese prison system.
While touring America last year Hagan had to defend allegations that he was acting like the Nazis, who in their day tried several ways to make money out of Human remains. Hagan fell back on previous assertions that people were cueing up to become part of the educational show saying that thousands of American had already signed contracts to donate their bodies for future exhibitions, and indicated that he did not need executed Chinese prisoners because he was already inundated with a surplus .
However no verification of the claims were ever given. Hagan also makes the claim that his freak shows feature Europeans although the exhibits in the Australian show are obviously from Chinese extraction.
Hagan’s specimens now numbering in their thousands have been sourced from many nations over the years. Russian prisons and many eastern European countries supplied Hagan with bodies but more recently he relies only only on China.
To date Hagan is under investigation in several nations who would like proof that the bodies he uses are legitimately and ethically acquired. The Chinese culture is not known for disrespecting the dead although there is a known market that exist for organs and body parts obtained from executed prisoners however as a crime against humanity the body part scandal does not compare with the freak show that is currently entertaining Australians.
I would like to think that the Australian government would have a duty of care in this matter and inquiries follow to ascertain how Dr Hagan secures bodies for his plasticised freak show. The public deserves to be assured that the claims made by the show are correct and should be protected from unknowingly aiding and abetting crime.
China has a well-documented history of human right abuse, which was once widely reported before any mention of China’s recent past put at risk various recent trade agreements shared between our nations.
As the Chinese government supports this export and hosts Hagan’s human display industry, our government should seek assurance and speak directly with the Chinese government to address the concern.
Surely, there is some decency left in our society that would put an end to what the Nazis would call the greatest show on earth?. If the perpetrators were German and the exploited victims were Jewish I’m sure there would be an outcry. Should Von Hagan be allowed to profit from the exploitation of executed Chinese prisoners?
I would hope not. Will the australian government demand an inquiry?
So far no investigation has been able to find out if Hagan’s bodies are Falun Gong members or relatives of your local Chinese community but I think its time someone found out.
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