The Human Body Exhibition

This weekend Ange and I went to see the Human Body Exhibition with her Mum, Paul and Mikey. The exhibition features real cadavers that have been preserved using a technique known as plastination. This enables them to be displayed without the need for storing them in fluid.

The display was produced by the guy who conducts autopsies in front of a live audience for the SBS show Anatomy For Beginners. I'm telling you, this guy is truly weird. I tried to watch some of the show, but picked an episode where he was methodically skinning a cadaver. That was too much for me.

The exhibition wasn't as bad, although some of the displays were a little disturbing. It was fascinating to see all the amazing things that go on inside our bodies. I wasn't sure about the need to pose some of the cadavers as if they were playing basketball or soccer though - that didn't seem to enhance the educational experience at all.

Things that made the exhibition a little weird:

At the entrance there was a profile of the anatomist Gunther von Hagens which specified "Sexuality: Straight". Why he felt it necessary to write this was unclear (although the propensity of the cadavers to still have their penises attached even when they were little more than skeletons displaying bone structure may have something to do with this).

The cadavers appeared to be mostly Asian (which is only weird because the guy who does the autopsies is not Asian and is not based in Asia - do Asians tend to donate their bodies to science more readily, or is there a more sinister explanation for this)?

The display of human embryos at almost every week of development was particularly difficult to look at. Weirdly, there was even an embryo described as "embryo at month 10". Not sure whether that was accurate.

The signs explaining the displays were poorly translated into English, and sometimes said some really bizarre things. For example, one of the signs above an embryo said something like "the woman feels much happiness and sadness and stomach upset".

I was torn throughout the time I spent in the exhibition between being fascinated by the anatomical displays, feeling very respectful of the people who donated their bodies to science, and trying not to burst into a fit of the giggles. In the end I was quite glad to leave the exhibition and walk outside into the sunlight.

Ange cracked us all up as our eyes adjusted to the outside world and she asked "What, no gift shop?!"