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The Navigator

Here's the skinny on the skinless exhibit

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published March 31, 2006

I'd call this a change of plans, except it's rare that anything I do involves "plans."

I originally expected to tell you to get cracking, that there are only three days left to check out naked human bodies at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry.

Instead, you got a reprieve. "Bodies, the Exhibition" has been so popular - more than 400,000 people have viewed it - that MOSI extended the exhibit five more months, through Sept. 4.

But here's my question: What's the big deal about "Bodies"?

Seriously, this is Tampa. If I want to see naked bodies, I have plenty of places to go. And most have a cover charge that's far more reasonable than twenty bucks. Not to mention a lovely buffet.

On the other hand, naked bodies stripped of their skin? And flesh? And chopped up and pulled apart and filleted and cross-sectioned and diced up and put on display?

Now that you can't see just anywhere.

Well, okay, maybe in a science lab.

Or in a dinner theater production of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Or on the DVD Soldiers Gone Wild: Abu Ghraib, Behind the Scenes. Totally hot! Totally uncensored! Only $19.95!

Or at my Uncle Dave's house. But I'm not suggesting that you go check out his, um, collection. He gets a little twitchy around strangers.

Not that I've ever seen anyone leave Uncle Dave's place unhappy. Or, for that matter, happy.

(Hmm. Come to think of it, I've never seen anyone leave Uncle Dave's place.)

Regardless, we're talking about "Bodies," an assortment of male and female cadavers viewed from the inside out, which MOSI has been pimping as its most successful exhibit ever.

Gee, no kidding. You mean "Our Place on the Planet: An Exhibition on Florida" hasn't worn out the turnstiles?

(To quote an unimpressed colleague who saw it: "Look, sand! Oooh!")

No offense, MOSI. I've enjoyed a lot of your exhibits, and the IMAX Dome Theater remains awe-inspiring, especially when you have a cool film. And apparently I feel close enough to you to speak to you as if you're an actual living thing, which clearly isn't healthy, so I'm going to stop right now.

Though "Bodies" has been here since August and already was extended once before, I just checked it out a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. And mildly unsettling.

It wasn't grisly, exactly. It was educational, in a sense. I left with the feeling that everyone should see it, though I'm not entirely positive why.

After seeing the exhibit, I was even more bothered by the fact that the people whose cadavers are on display never signed off on having their mortal coil so viewed. (The bodies belong to people from China who were unidentified or never claimed by family members.)

While the educational value is unquestionable - I can't imagine how smokers could examine a diseased lung and step outside for a cigarette - there's no doubt the exhibit is designed for maximum dramatic and entertainment value.

So how do I feel about having dropped 20 of my hard-earned dollars - sorry, that sound you hear is my editor laughing about the term "hard-earned" - on "Bodies"?

Tough call. It's hard to not feel that they're somewhat exploiting the deceased for profit. And yet I also think that the lessons learned here will make a lot of attendees think long and hard about their lives, their lifestyles and how impermanent our time is on Earth.

Heady stuff, I know. It might have sent me running to the nearest bar. If only I could get the picture of a cirrhotic liver out of my mind.

Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431. His Times blog, The Ill Literate, is at www.sptimes.com/blogs/tampaarts.

[Last modified March 30, 2006, 14:26:24]