Body Worlds

"Anatomical dissection gives the human mind an opportunity to compare the dead with the living, things severed with things intact, things destroyed with things evolving, and opens up the profoundness of nature to us more than any other endeavor or consideration."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This past Tuesday I saw Body Worlds & the Story of the Heart at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Body Worlds showcases Gunther von Hagen's technique of plastination, or preserving living tissue with plastic. In the exhibit, entire circulatory systems are in tact, intricate blood vessels, and minute capillaries that look like thin hairs covered in red acrylic paint. Individual tendons, white and thick, stretch from muscle to ridged muscle, all knit onto a bone frame. From one body, just the nerves are displayed--parts we seldom think of. In the center of the rooms individual organs lie in glass cases. Healthy, functional lungs are placed next to blackened and tumorous lungs, diseased hearts sit next to healthy hearts and enlarged hearts of athletes. The physical effects of smoking and obesity are emphasized.

Despite the excellent preservation, the bodies do not seem as real or disturbing as I anticipated them to be. Each full body is in a different creative pose, cut and separated to show some aspect of our internal organs. One body, the Cyclist, is cut in three vertical pieces. Her ovaries and uterus protrude from one of the slices and leave a negative space on the other side, showing the organ itself, how snugly organs fit together, and the complexity of each intertwined system. As well as the Cyclist, the Javelin-Thrower was presented, the Kneeling Lady, and the Praying Man. In the hands of the Praying Man rests a plasticized heart. It is as if he is holding it sacred, holding the heart to a higher level of understanding, power, and wonder.

Along with the bodies hang photographs of living people with quotations about the heart by various artists and poets. The line between our physical and emotional selves seems very distinct. Then we turned the corner and saw the Juxtaposed Couple.

Their shoulders are turned in, they lean towards each other, their arms are gently placed on the other, and the woman's head rests against her partner's. This piece gives us a clear shot of the brain, spinal cord, and lungs, yet is so tender. The physical and emotional fuse, as the piece conveys something more than muscles and bones.

The idea that these bodies used to be living and breathing freaks a lot of people out. The show brings up the question: what makes us who we are? All that constitutes our personality is not the difference in the thickness of our blood vessels or the shape of our gall bladders. Our bodies are incredible machines. But without consciousness, without perception, without memory and the ability to sense and make sense of the world around us, our bodies are just vehicles.

Anatomia del corpo humano, drawn by Juan Valverde de Amusco in 1559, shows a man holding his skin. According to Wikipedia, "The skin's distorted face has the appearance of a ghost or a cloud, suggesting that [his] spirit has been separated from, or peeled off of, the fleshy inner man." Gunther von Hagen recreated this anatomical sketch in an attempt to show that the skin is the largest organ in our body.

I enjoy controversy. I welcome anything that makes me think. Of course, this exhibit has received negative attention because of the "grotesque" manner in which our innards are displayed, the way some of the bodies were acquired (supposedly all the bodies were from consenting donors, although the copy-cat shows have been accused of using Chinese bodies without permission of the person and their family), and in many religious contexts the body is considered sacred and must be buried after death. Antigone, anyone? People were also upset when two bodies were positioned as if they were having sex, and museum visitors were uncomfortable with a pregnant woman on view, as well as a few fetuses in different stages of development. The pregnant woman would have been fascinating to see, but she was not at the exhibit that I went to. A few of my friends that went to Body Worlds said that she was the only body that made them queasy.

This show was one of the best things I've done this summer. I am finally able to piece together what I've learned from drawings and lecture and I can visualize all of the gushy crap inside of us. The educational value of the show was reason enough to buy a ticket, but the artful presentation made each piece even more beautiful.

"The older I get, the more I realize that death is normal and that it is life that is exceptional," said Dr. von Hagens. "I hope this exhibition will encourage people to strive to live with inspiration every day throughout their lives."

Painting as promised

Last night I had inspiration to paint. It was late and I needed to sleep, but my fingers were itching to slather color into shapes--Ebola shapes. My first few tries were disappointing, as I mixed too many colors on my canvas and made it muddy, but the third time I got it right. I focused on the contrast between the yellow and blue-green-brown, and blotted the background to allude to bruising, broken blood vessels, and blotchy skin. The photograph below doesn't show as much texture as the original, but you get the idea.

Ebola!

For my first post, I'm sharing some news about my favorite microbe: the Ebola virus.

Today I came across a statement that there is a current outbreak in the Congo. Read more on the World Health Organization's website:

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_01_02/en/index.html


Closely related to Marburg, Ebola has 4 subtypes: Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Reston. Also, a quick google search comes up with Ebola Ivory Coast as well, though I haven't heard about this before and will need to do some research on it. These are types of filoviruses that are level 4 pathogens and if infected, the death rate among victims is 50 to 90 percent. Yikes! According to Hot Zone by Richard Preston, Malaria is considered highly lethal, as it kills 1 in 20 people. Ebola kills 9 in 10.

When Ebola enters the body, it immediately replicates, destroys the body's cells and liquifies internal organs. Connective tissue dissolves, and pretty soon you've got a violent, awful mess. Maybe that's where inspiration for some horror movies came from.

While terrible, the virus, like all organisms, has some ecological purpose. Preston states that outbreaks come as a consequence of the ruin of the tropical biosphere.

He states, "The emerging viruses are surfacing from ecologically damaged parts of the earth. Many of them come from the tattered edges of tropical rain forests, or they come from tropical savanna that is being settled rapidly by people. The tropical rain forests are the deep reservoirs of life on the planet, containing most of the world's plant and animal species. The rain forests are also its largest reservoirs of viruses, since all living things carry viruses. When viruses come out of an ecosystem, they tend to spread in waves through the human population, like echoes from a dying biosphere."

Preston goes on to say, "In a sense, the earth is mounting an immune response against the human species. It is beginning to react to the human parasite, the flooding infection of people, the dead spots of concrete all over the planet, the cancerous rot-outs in Europe, Japan, and the United States, thick with replicating primates, the colonies enlarging and spreading and threatening to shock the biosphere with mass extinctions. Perhaps the biosphere does not "like" the idea of five billion humans. Or it could also be said that the extreme amplification of the human race, which has occurred only in the past hundred years or so, has suddenly produced a very large quantity of meat, which is sitting everywhere in the biosphere and may not be able to defend itself against a life form that might want to consume it. Nature has interesting ways of balancing itself. The rain forest has its own defenses. The earth's immune system, so to speak, has recognized the presence of the human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite."

Sigh. That's intense.

Ebola. Horrifying, beautiful, violent, amazing, shocking, powerful, bloody brilliant. Below is a great photograph of Ebola Zaire, taken by Dr. F.A. Murphy in 1976. This is supposedly the first photo taken of the Ebola virus, and it is an electron micrograph at 160,000 x magnification. I'd like to do some acrylic paintings of this. The curves, or "shepherd's crook" gracefully loop and are balanced by the long strand. This photo also shows wonderful contrast between dark and light. I love when science and art come together.

If all the blood and gore and talk of humans being parasites hasn't warmed you up to this little guy, maybe this will:

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/ebola.html

Giant microbes is a company that makes viruses, bacteria, and other small organisms in plush form. That's right! You can have your own cuddly Ebola. So far I own flesh eating (with a fork and knife embroidered right on it, so you know it means business), rhinovirus (the common cold), and fat cell (I use that one as inspiration when I work out, and I make sure to keep it separated from flesh eating). I'm waiting until my birthday in February, and then if no one has bought the furry thing for me I'm getting it myself. YAY! Soon I'll have a friend sleeping next to my face at night.

Let's hope it doesn't begin to replicate....