May 21, 2007

Body Worlds

Highly recommended. Combines grossness and kitsch to yield an aesthetic frisson unmatched since The Little Shop of Horrors. One "plastinated" man holds his own internal organs aloft like a trophy. Another has been sliced vertically into slabs, tattooed portraits of exotic women still fully legible on the ribbons of skin encircling the slabs (Damien H., eat your heart out). There's even a gigantic, half-dissected horse surmounted by a half-dissected human holding his own brain in one hand and the horse's in the other – if only it were their penises. The best pieces are displayed with metal plaques bearing the signature of the proud scientist/artist, Gunther von Hagens.

My boyfriend got dizzy after five minutes and hurried out; I felt strangely famished. More info at the Body Worlds site; here's Wikipedia's summary of certain controversies; and here's a page with a great pic of von Hagens with one of his creations (he's the one in the hat).

No comments:

Post a Comment