I was upset that I missed the Body Worlds exhibit the first time it came through Denver back in 2006. My odd morbid interests and artistic need to understand anatomy really drew me to the idea of Gunther von Hagens’ work back then. But I missed it.I think that is a good thing, however.
Why? Well, the exhibit is in Denver again, currently, and I finally got to see it a couple of weeks ago with my wife. I am still fascinated by the dead (and the idea that they can rise), yes. I am still an anatomy thirsty artist, yes. But I am now, at this point in my life, also post weight los surgery. I am finally trying to take care of my body. Working out and strengthening my muscles and my heart. Really trying to understand my body and why I need to take care of it.
That, my friends, is the point of the Body Worlds exhibit and Gunther von Hagens’ process of body preservation through plastination.
Dissection and autopsy used to be a privilege reserved for medical professionals. What von Hagens’ plastination process allows for is the opportunity to experience the human body, its structures, its inner workings, and even its illness and faults as everyday people. It gives one a chance to understand how and why our bodies do what they do, therefore helping us to understand how and why we should take care of them.
I am completely captivated.
As an artist I have always respected the human body. It’s mechanical wonder. It’s resilience. It’s grace. It’s beauty - even in the not so pretty. But as a human being who has not taken such good care of his body in its first thirty years of life, the body Worlds exhibit has allowed me to look inside and really understand what it is I am trying to better with all of the work that I am doing and with all of the difficult decisions I have made regarding this surgery and my self-challenge to better my health.
And, friends, I hope by making my body healthier that I am around to enjoy it for that much longer. But when I am gone, this body of mine is going to continue to help people learn about themselves. I have decided to donate my body for plastination after my death. And I couldn’t be more happy and at ease with this choice.
Never one to envision myself being put in an (overly expensive, I might add) box and put into the ground (unless of course, I knew there was a GOOD chance I could come back and eat some of you) or be turned to ashes – I always had some weird plan for my body after death, the latest of these plans was joking with friends about having myself sent to a taxidermist) I can think of no better way to help people with something I will no longer be using. Yes, I’m a donor. Hell, I will not be using these parts when I’m dead, so if they can help someone else then please, by all mean, use them.
And I feel my donation to plastination is the exact same idea – perhaps even better! To know that after I am gone some part of me (or me as a whole) may help inspire someone the way that I have been inspired by Body Worlds - well folks that’s amazing.
Besides I did not see a healthy stomach shown beside one that has undergone gastric bypass. So, yeah… they probably need me. ;P
Discover Body Worlds for yourself right now at the Denver Museum of nature and Science http://exhibitions.dmns.org/ or right here via the ‘net http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html.
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