The body worlds
exhibition,
Brick Lane London. .
For some reason I expected to be greeted by a horrible smell! The posters and television adverts for this display made it seem that these 'models' were temporary and had a short shelf life. The way the pictures in colour showed parts of skin peeled back and muscles and bones on display I could only associate it to animal quarters you see hung up in a butcher's shop before they are chomped into chops!
The plastination method makes these 'subjects' solid and longer lasting than all other earlier forms of preservation and mummification.
The audience was queuing down the lane in the pissing rain and I was a bit anxious at the number of ankle bitters aka children that were there with their adults. I thought to myself 'great!they are gonna be crying and screaming all the way through this!'
No.
I was walking round gagging and trying not to be sick when I forced myself to remember these are not just objects but were once people! Its a bizzare concept when you've never seen a person with their face split in two wearing a hat!
The displays are informative and they are displayed with a comedy element. There is a huge man(?) riding a bike and another fantasty pose which only reminded me of Harry Potter!
The kids in the museum seemed fine, only a couple crying in the dead babies section. One man was sat feeding his child a bottle of milk next to the display called 'The Runner'!
Since experiencing that exhibition I've not been too keen to eat red meat on the bone, I've had some strange dreams and I've started looking at people differently. I visualise people in the same way as some of the subjects in the exhibition. I think this display would also be a great educational tool for racists, behind the skin we are all the same hey?
I'd like to see it all again, this time I'm prepared for it!