Body Exhibition - click for info

So I finally went to the Body Exhibition after being convinced by the marketing (LAST WEEKS! GO NOW!) which made it seem like it would take a week to go through it, a day or two to drive there, and then the recovery period. Why not "last days"? Or event ends ... " " ... So it goes.

Here's my previous post about my dread and nausea anticipation - and I was right... Thank god the exhibit didn't really take weeks because I was nauseous the whole time. I don't have any problem with the moral implications; apparently, some are offended by the actual process by which the bodies are made into displays. The participants gave consent for their bodies to be used following death - we don't know how informed that consent was, but it was given... And initially I was shocked by the price of the exhibit, which was $22... the Met and the Modern are hovering around $25, so c'mon - but when you see the labor and the time it takes to make this art, it's more understandable. It takes teams of people weeks or months to do one body...

No, the nausea was just caused by the reality of it - and wondering how they twisted the bodies into these poses and the minute detail rendered by much slicing and dicing. It was just gross... I'm not saying it had no artistic value - it was very artistically presented, and whoever developed the exhibit (one can't really say curated unless there are these plasticized bodies to choose from all over the world) made an effort to mitigate the purely scientific approach by including philosophical, historical, artistic, and biblical references to the body and the study of anatomy in beautifully lit displays on all the walls behind the pieces.

And people who know me know I am very elastic in what I like in art. I did not like it, although it was very interesting - like a really well done gross-out film or book that is not softened with humor or a happy ending... I am just glad it was at the science center and not the art museum... And I'm glad I went in with an empty stomach.