Beautiful or macabre, “Body Worlds 3” is a study in grave anatomy
By Matthew Halverson
Like an army of the undead, frozen in fear by the sight of their own skinless, deconstructed bodies, Dr. Gunther von Hagens’ controversial—yet wildly successful—”Body Worlds 3” exhibit will make the Saint Louis Science Center its temporary mausoleum beginning October 19. We asked his wife, the exhibit’s conceptual designer, Dr. Angelina Whalley, to help us dissect one of its “plastinated” specimens.
- This plastinate is known as On Point Dancer—and that’s as much as you’ll learn about its identity. Von Hagens keeps his body donor files under wraps—he’s been accused of using corpses of executed Chinese prisoners—but Whalley insists that the procurement process is legitimate and that plastinates must remain anonymous for the sake of the exhibit. “As soon as you learn that this was Mr. So-and-So who died of I-don’t-know-what, it distracts your mind from learning.”
- That tuft of hair that looks suspiciously like a Mohawk has a purpose, but it’s not to make the plastinate look like Johnny Rotten (pun most definitely intended). Along with the still-intact eyebrows and lifelike expression, it’s part of an attempt, Whalley says, to maintain the plastinate’s humanity. “Our first exhibitions frightened people because the specimens looked so dead. So we did these things to take away the fear and remind people that this was a real, living person.”
- Whalley insists that the exhibit’s primary function is to educate and inform, but it sure looks like these “wings” on the On Point Dancer (which, incidentally, are the pectoral muscles, cut away from the ribs) are positioned like that for aesthetic purposes. The exhibit has taken heat for allegedly blurring the line between science and art, but the good doctor says it’s just a matter of making the “dissection harmonize with the overall look.”
- He looks like he was in pretty decent shape, right? Wrong. In fact, on the other side of death, this plastinate could have been an out-of-shape schlep. Once the skin and subcutaneous fat are removed—nearly 100 staffers are trained in the dissection process, which can last weeks for one specimen—it’s easy to look good, so to speak. “Our body donors are actually pretty old,” Whalley says, “but you don’t see it unless you’re trained in morphology.”
- You gotta love silicone: Used in caulk, dry cleaning and breast implants, the synthetic polymer is literally the glue that holds this plastinate and von Hagens’ other creations together. Infused into every cell through a process that involves first replacing all bodily fluids with acetone (which is then sucked out, creating a vacuum that pulls the silicone into every cell in the body), it lets the plastinate live on—basically forever, according to Whalley, who, incidentally, intends to be plastinated.
- Don’t let the graceful pose fool you—the On Point Dancer was not actually a dancer. To get the authentic, lifelike pose—a task that Whalley describes as “artistic work”—von Hagens’ team holds the specimen in place with an assortment of pins, string and foam padding. It’s a lengthy process, but because the polymer must be exposed to a gaseous curing agent before it will harden, they have as much time as they need.
