Thursday, January 05, 2006

Mia and Jackie's excellent adventure...


It was Midget and Heffa Day yesterday, Jackie and I spent quality time together, we had an excellent adventure…not only was it fun but it was educational too! We attended “Bodies: The Exhibition” at the South Street Seaport yesterday. For those not familiar with the show think in terms of atonomist/artist Gunther von Hagens aka “Dr. Frankenstein” for his work using human corpses. He currently has 3 “Body” shows touring the country. The show we went to yesterday was not one of his, but was basically the same thing except that that it wasn’t sold to the public under the guise of art instead t the exhibitors sell the exhibit as a "scared straight" option, as there are "lungs blackened by smoking and a brain damaged by a stroke." Kind of like a “fix yo’self before you wreck yo’self fool!” type of thing.

Jackie and I were there because aside from being morbidly curious and totally loving museums we figured since she’s studying Mortuary Science (yeah she wanna play with dead people) we figured this would be beneficial and educational for her. Never let it be said Mia and her friends don’t strive to educate themselves even while on winter break! There’s been some controversy surrounding this show as to whether the bodies were legally obtained. All the bodies are from China, where let’s face it the law runs fast and loose. It’s suspected that the 22 bodies on display may be those of executed prisoners.

The corpses were preserved through “plastination,” which replaces body fluids with liquid plastic. The plastic is hardened, leaving tissues intact. Bodies can then be displayed without formaldehyde or glass containers, so the public is able to within inches of exposed organs. I got to touch a brain which felt mushy and handle a liver which felt rubbery. I thought that I would be grossed out by the exhibit on some level but it seems that my years as a zoology major in high school kind of prepared me for the exhibit. While a zoology student I often dissected animals and their internal organs as well as grafted veins and preformed mock heart surgery. However for some the displays proved to be too much I saw women crying at the display of fetuses in various stages of development. One that particularly haunted me was the cadaver of a pregnant woman her womb splayed open to show the 24 week old fetus. My mother gave birth to me and my twin at 24 weeks and I got to see how small we actually were at that stage. It is one thing to hear all your life how small you were at 2lbs but it is another thing to see it. I was amazed and it deepened my gratitude and respect for the doctors who worked so hard to keep me alive.

We weren’t allowed to take photos of the display although Jackie and I managed to sneak a few shots here and there but they aren’t of the best quality. Photos 1-7 are from the NY Times I wanted you to see what we couldn’t photograph clearly. Photos 8-14 were the pictures we took on the down low shhhhhh…

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1 comment from:  Emory Mayne,