Karen and I went to see the Body Worlds exhibition in London earlier today, which meant we had to get up early to catch a train. When we got to the underground at Kings Cross we found that the Hammersmith and City line was closed for maintenance, which meant we had to take an indirect route to get to the right station. We got there in the end and found the venue with out any trouble, we then settle down for a bit of a wait.
The queue was moving along at a steady pace and it was 25 minutes before we made it into the building. We both thought that was it, but then there was a similar sized queue inside that you couldn't see from the outside so we ended up queuing for around an hour. They only allow 800 people in the exhibition at anyone time, so you have to wait until some people leave before you can actually get in.
The initial part of the exhibition was mobbed as everyone tried to crowd round and see the exhibits. IF we had made it last Saturday it might have been a bit quieter due to the snow and since it was the second last day, it we were both expecting it to be busy. It was just a bit of a pain trying to fit 20 people round a glass cabinet where there was only room for ten.
We moved on through the exhibition and up onto the main floor where all the bigger exhibits were and slowly started to make our way round it. I was quite freaky to realise that at some point the things we were looking at were alive and kicking. They almost didn't look real due to the way they have been preserved and then cut open.
Personally I think that the parts I enjoyed the most were the small items in the glass cabinets, like hearts, lungs, kidneys etc. They were all laid out showing healthy specimens through to diseased and malformed specimens, it was all quite revealing. What I wasn't so sure about was the way that some of the bodies have been presented.
On the whole they were very well done, but some of them, like a chap who a hat on, I felt were pushing it a bit as I didn't feel it added anything. I certainly didn't think it was art, I thought it was more of an instructional exhibition on what the human body is composed of. To that end I felt that some of the bodies that were on show were trivialising the life of the person who had donated their body.
The third part of the exhibition deals with foetuses, babies and pregnant women. This bit really unsettled both Karen and I and we both didn't really look to closely at some of the exhibits. I must admit to being quite fascinated by the some of the foetuses, as it's not something that you get to see in the normal course of things. However, it got me wondering just how they had got hold of these specimens, especially some of the more developed ones.
The most unsettling thing for me had to be the reclining mother with 8 month old baby still in the womb. How had this woman died? Why couldn't they have saved the baby? These were question going through my mind and I must admit I only gave that particular exhibit a cursory glance before shivering and walking away. It really didn't leave me feeling anything other than cold.
The other thing that left me feeling a bit cold was the selection of deformed babies. While it was very revealing and instructional, it just felt like a fair ground freak show and I didn't feel too comfortable looking at them. After that we headed out for a breath of fresh air and a quiet moment to contemplate what we had seen.
Over all I think it was well worth going to see, I certainly came away with more knowledge of the human body that I had when I went in. I would also say that if you get the chance, then go and see it, make up your own mind about what you see.
Posted by fatboab at February 08, 2003 06:50 PM
