A motley collection of human body organs rested on a banquet table yesterday beside Dr. Roy Glover at Turtle Bay Exploration Park.
Talk about your ultimate visual aide: one human heart, a brain, a healthy lung, a sorry-looking smoker’s lung and a cut-away slice of leg, bone, tendons and all. The body parts rested beside press packets and fact sheets as Glover, A Michigan professor emeritus of anatomy and cell biology, spoke with north state media folks about Bodies Revealed, the superstar exhibit Turtle Bay has booked from May through August.
The above-mentioned body parts, preserved in a polymer resin material, were mere samples to illustrate the complex procedure that can take as long as one-and-a-half years to turn an entire human body and its parts into such rubberized versions of their previous forms that it’s easy to forget they’re not just Halloween props.
They’re real. Human body parts. Dissected and extracted from real people. That, of course, always begs the next flurry of questions that arise about the bodies from China used in the exhibit. These inquiries follow Glover around the country as he discusses this fascinating yet often controversial exhibit.
Whose bodies provided the organs? Did the people or their families give consent? What about that “20/20” television special? And what about the California Assembly Bill that protests exhibits like Bodies Revealed?
Glover took his time to answer all those questions, but in the end, he said he felt 100-percent confident that Premier Exhibitions, the company behind Bodies Revealed and Bodies . . . The Exhibition, would never jeopardize its reputation or risk shareholders’ investments by using bodies gained through dubious, unethical or illegal means.
What Glover obviously preferred to discuss was his prediction that Bodies Revealed would educate, fascinate, inspire and enlighten Turtle Bay visitors. He spoke with a preacher’s conviction about his earnest belief that Bodies Revealed is a life-changing and even behavior-changing exhibit because it allows us to see how our life choices affect our health, and how our choices are reflected in our bodies.
About 8 million people have already seen some version of the Bodies Revealed exhibit, Glover said, and overall, the exhibits have been well-received, with the utmost of dignity and respect.
Bodies Revealed at Turtle Bay will consist of nine complete galleries in which about 10 to 12 bodies and their parts will be displayed, Glover said.
This was a relief for me since I wondered if Redding would get a much smaller exhibit – a Bodies Lite, if you will – with just an elbow here, a rib there, an ear there, and so forth.
I’m a bit familiar with this exhibit since I had the honor of attending it – or its similar competitor – in Prague last year. I confess that although I’ve always had a fascination with anything related to medical science as it relates to the human body, I entered the exhibit slightly worried about how I’d handle the gross-out factor.
I did feel slightly queasy at some parts, but mainly, I was absolutely riveted and enthralled. One particular memory sticks with me: a skinless man kicking a soccer ball. That’s one of those images you just don’t shake overnight.
Turtle Bay anticipates — hopes — that Bodies Revealed will be quite popular. Therefore, the museum asks that people choose a day to attend and buy their tickets in advance of that date.
Meanwhile, Glover will soon pack up his suitcase of body parts and take his talk on the road again to another city.
And I thought taking a laptop through airport security was a hassle.
Advance purchase tickets — specific to the date of guests’ visits — are available starting Friday from Turtle Bay’s ticketing agent, the Redding Convention Center Box Office.
Online: http://ci.redding.ca.us/convcenter/index.htm
By phone: 530-225-4150 888-225-4150 (California calls only)
In person: (Advance) at the Convention Center Box Office, 777 Auditorium Dr.
Turtle Bay Visitor’s Center: (The day of your visit.)
Prices:
Adults (13 – 64) $23
T.B. member Adults: $16
Seniors (65+) $19
Children (4 – 12) $19T.B. member senior/child $13
