Freak Show or Science? BODIES THE EXHIBITION
BODIES THE EXHIBITION is not for the faint of heart. If you can bury that ancient taboo of “thou shalt not profit from human corpses”, whether they’re unknown Chinese prisoners, King Tut’s Egyptian mummy or Inca Gold for the Gods, you may be moved to pay Premier Exhibitions $25 for admission, to glimpse the forbidden.
Bodies the Exhibition is a scientific study in human anatomy, on par with exhibits in Ottawa, our own Manitoba Museum and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights slated for launch in Winnipeg in 2012. Visitors yesterday from 8 months to 80 years of age were awe-struck, wandering in circles, alive and awake to the fragile mysteries of the human body. My journey at Bodies moved me from curious to fearful, shocked to fascinated, and finally, from knowing more to being more.
It’s human nature to focus for a moment on the bizarre. Ever slow down when driving by a car accident; you just want to be cautious, right? Wrong, it’s a primitive human survival instinct nestled in our caveman reptilian brain to prevent death by predator. Bodies delivers current day predators: brain after stroke, lungs affected by cancer, and, in a dark room tucked in the back, 30 fetuses from two weeks to six months of age floating in watery cylinders below the words, “The heart beats at five weeks”.
Still want to venture out among the snowdrifts, beyond December’s Christmas cheer and tinsel, here’s my survival short list of must have’s at Bodies the Exhibition:
- Bring a friend, preferably a child because they have fewer hang-ups
- Don’t get side-tracked by the Made in China souvenirs and photo booth
- Leave your camera at home, or you’ll lose a toonie to the coat check
- Park your designer shades, you’ll need a flashlight to navigate in the cavernous rooms
- Bring anti-bacterial wipes, you might want to hold a baboon brain in your hands
- Don’t eat before you go, although medical students will assist you if you’re queasy
It ends; it’s not forever…life…and BODIES THE EXHIBITION on January 9.
RUMOURS AND TWEETS
With every ending THEY SAY comes a new beginning! Tweets say (unverified) Thomson (of Thomson/Reuters Corp. with 34 billion in assets) and our own Mark Chipman (Frontiers North) still have an interest in MTS Centre‘s bid to bring the Jets Hockey Team (a.k.a. Phoenix Coyotes) or another new NHL franchise, back to Winnipeg. And, there MAY be another hush-hush exhibit in the temporary MTS Exhibit Hall, before it’s demolished to build a boutique hotel? Premier Exhibitions MAY bring us:
- Dialog in the Dark: Your Senses Will Never Be the Same… DIALOG IN THE DARK is not an ordinary Exhibition; it is an experience that will awaken senses, challenge prejudices, and deepen self-awareness. (….prepare to be blind folded for this one.) OR
- Titanic the Artifact Exhibition: Actual artifacts, recovered from two and one half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic, tell the story behind the legendary Titanic’s short journey from construction and destruction to eventual recovery. Walk her decks, peer into her cabins, and meet her passengers and crew.
PUBLIC RELATIONS BUSINESS LESSON: For those of you PREDICTING the demise of Premier Exhibitions, have no FEAR!
FatPitchFinancials.com reports Premier’s losses of over 8 million dollars in 2010. Despite over 3.3 million dollars in revenue, 80% gross profit margin in 2009 in the US museum product line, the publicly shared firm is seeing decreasing demand and revenue.
Increasing global resistance to promoting exhibits through sensationalism, as well as poor market and venue choices, have forced the company to explore digital enhancements, online promotion, and targeted community outreach. Premier plans to identify and profile current visitors, build databases of prospects, identify non-visitors, create brand strategies, leverage digital marketing, design new market approaches, select venues carefully, and optimize media spending.
In 2008, an investigative news report by ABC News 20/20‘s Brian Ross said that a black market has formed in China for bodies, specifically bodies of executed prisoners. Premier’s Bodies supplier, Dr. Sui and the Dalian Medical University Plastination Co. Ltd., has no connection with the respected Dalian Medical University, suggesting that specimens acquired elsewhere may not have died of natural causes. Premier was subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General’s Office, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry investigates Premier’s alleged contravention of the 2006 law that prohibits the export of corpses for commercial purposes.
Signing off for now, wordbone.
Wordbone the Blog at wordbone.wordpress.com: Wordbone is a student of the word, digging up the bones, writing down the bones and burying a few new ones.
I find it interesting on how the legality of the body export is discussed and how it may be illegal to export dead prisoners. In all the press you read about this, most won’t breach the notion of what constitutes a crime in China versus western nations. Like, you don’t go to jail until you die for criticising the government here. That may not be the case in China.