Bodies: The Exhibition

Essay by melimu78College, UndergraduateA-, September 2007

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I'll admit it. I literally forced myself to go to this exhibition, although I had heard from people that this was an experience like no other. What I saw for myself was the most graphic and scary, but in a weird way, the most beautiful display of human anatomy. What I experienced that afternoon totally blew my mind. It was not long after I arrived there and saw it all for myself, that I was glad I had made the effort to go.

"Bodies…. The Exhibition," at the South Street Seaport featured the preserved remains of 22 humans and many other specimens, including a set of conjoined fetuses, an example of male genitalia and a human brain. I found everything visually appalling, yet at the same time I could not take my eyes off of everything I was taking in. Every single body part looked fake to me. However, that isn't a bad thing.

They make things look so amazing. So amazing, in fact, that these body parts simply just don't look natural or even real. People get a much deeper understanding of what's inside their bodies after experiencing this exhibit. They preserve the organs in a way that they look like they were artificially machine made. I was shocked to learn that these organs and body parts were once in a real person's body and actually functioning at one time.

There was a body there, that had been divided in half, which was by far, the most amazing sight ever. This body was a skeleton that was basically "sliced like cold cuts." I was able to see through every "slice" of the skeleton. The fact that almost every single body displayed at the exhibit was posing like alive and functioning people made it that much more entertaining to see.