“Bodies” has been given a full-body makeover.
The controversial exhibit at the South Street Seaport featuring actual human cadavers, fetuses and diseased organs reopened Feb. 4 with a slicker look and dozens of new specimens never before seen in New York.
FOR A CLOSER LOOK AT THE AMAZING NEW SPECIMENS, CLICK HERE.
Among the enhancements to “Bodies: The Exhibition,” which debuted here in 2006 and had been closed for a month, is a revamped layout, video screens, audio tour, interactive displays, artsy wall graphics and even new-agey mood music.
The overall effect is like strolling through a fancy downtown art gallery – except that the place is packed with preserved corpses in whimisical poses.
“After five years we wanted to bring a new look and feel to New York,” says John Zaller, vice-president of Premier Exhibitions, the Atlanta-based company behind the 14 “Bodies” exhibits in the U.S. and around the world.
“The previous design was much more austere and took a specific approach to anatomy only. The redesign is much more vibrant and engaging. Not only is it educational and focused on anatomy, but on health and wellness, too.”
There are also more than 130 new specimens among the 225 in total, including the exhibit’s main, if morbid, attraction: 13 cadavers whose skin has been stripped off and innards dissected to reveal the wondrous workings of the human body.
[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} [endif]Scattered throughout the exhibit on pedestals, the bodies – all from China – are displayed in a variety of action poses like shooting a basketball, throwing a pitch, tossing a discus or conducting an orchestra.
“The idea is to think of the body in motion,” says Dr. Roy Glover, Premier’s chief medical director. “The exhibit wouldn’t work if the bodies were simply lying on a dissecting table.”
The cadavers are preserved through a process called plastination, during which skin and fat is removed before the bodies are dissected, posed, injected with silicone and then hardened.
Depending on the type of specimen, paint or dye is used to differentiate such parts of the anatomy as muscles, tendons and blood vessels. The process can take up to a year for a full-body specimen.
“Everything you see is real except the front of the eyes, which become cloudy over time,” says Glover.
But while Premier sees its “Bodies” exhibits as educational, critics say putting real corpses on display for profit is nothing short of exploitation.
Despite the millions of wide-eyed curiosity seekers who have seen “Bodies” in New York and other cities such as Las Vegas, the exhibit has been operating under a cloud of controversy after news reports began questioning how Premier and its several worldwide competitors obtained the bodies.
The backlash was especially fueled by a 2008 investigative piece by ABC News. It claimed a black market was flourishing in China that supplied bodies to a company that preserved them for exhibition companies like Premier – including the remains of executed prisoners.
Premier maintained that it only used unclaimed bodies of persons who died of natural causes. Though the ABC report did not conclusively prove prisoners were among the cadavers in “Bodies,” it spurred an investigation in 2008 by the New York State Attorney General’s office.
As part of the settlement, Premier had to issue a disclaimer stating that some of its bodies could have come from Chinese prisons via the Chinese Bureau of Police. Premier also had to obtain proper documentation from then on showing a cadaver’s cause of death and its origins, plus proof he or she consented to being exhibited in such a way.
Zaller told the Daily News that since the settlement, Premier has not acquired any new bodies or organs from its Chinese supplier. The specimens new to the Seaport show are from other “Bodies” exhibits.
Though the origins of its existing stock of specimens still seems murky, Premier felt a vindication of sorts last December. The Chinese technician who had told ABC News he had obtained bodies of executed prisoners for the company that supplied Premier changed his story.
During testimony for a lawsuit, the technician said he was paid to lie by his employer, a competitor of Premier’s supplier, in order to discredit the rival company.
Yet that still hasn’t changed the perception that the bodies in “Bodies” were illegally – and immorally – obtained.
“These are healthy male Asian bodies, and these exhibits are all over America and Europe. So where is the steady supply of these healthy bodies coming from?” says Regina Monaco, a chemist from New York who was “horrifed” when she saw the exhibit and challenged the “Bodies” staff for answers.
“It was extremely fishy off the bat. It’s dehumanizing and a tremendous human rights violation,” says Monaco.
“That controvesy is still out there,” says Zaller. “But we have done our due diligence. These bodies are all unclaimed bodies from China, and I can say that we have 100% faith in our specimen provider that they followed all legal means.
“What we tell people,” adds Zaller, “is to come and see the exhibit and make their own determination.”
