Bodies: The Exhibition

Oh, and the bodies did come, and they were weird and shriveled.

I attended a free preview showing of 'Bodies' in the Ambassador Theatre on Friday, courtesy of my friend Dr. Banana, which was nice because I didn't have to pay the twenty quid in and also because I'd been waiting to see this show for such a long time. I remember the original documentary on plastination from a few years ago, before Gunther von Hagens got his 'Anatomist' show on Channel 4.

The current show of course, isn't anything to do with Gunther von Hagens, and a lot of people seem disappointed by that, as if there's some genuine importance in knowing exactly who it is pumping plastic into these people you didn't know before you pay in to ogle them up. In reality, I assume it's because the man in charge here, Dr. Roy Glover, doesn't wear hats, isn't eccentric and merely has straight-laced capitalist interests here. It must be terrible for people viewing it that he doesn't even just pretend to be eccentric, so they could blame him in part for their curiosity.

As I was so excited about it, it's not surprising that I was a little underwhelmed. There were a few incredible things to see in the show, like the entire nervous system preserved in one piece and the long vitrine towards the end where a body is sliced into around 25 sections. There is also a woman who has been cut in half, the two halves placed facing each other, and her arms raised so she can high five herself, which displays her reproductive system. It's great to see that she gets such a kick out of it herself, but someone should tell her how nineties high-fiving is.

Being sold as it is on shock and controversy, when you get there and aren't shocked, you're left with quite a mundane experience. For anyone not swept away by the ethical problems encountered with this kind of exhibition it loses it's edge a bit, and just ends up feeling like a Young Scientist for necrophiliacs.