Is this Art?

[ZenziC]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=4&u=/nm/20050301/od_nm/poland_germany_corpses_dc

WARSAW (Reuters) - Controversial German artist Gunther von Hagens, known for his displays of preserved human corpses stripped of skin, wants to build a factory in Poland to mass-produce his art, local officials said Monday.

Von Hagens, whose exhibitions made out of human and animal remains have attracted millions of visitors around the world, has already bought land and industrial buildings in the western Polish town of Sieniawa Zarska, near the German border.

You know, I saw von Hagen's exhibition in 2002 when I was at Oxford. I didn't consider it art, I thought it was more educational than art.

He did have his corpses posed but I considered these poses to show how the body functions. I'm now not sure of his intentions here. They are real corpses in his shows, including women who were pregnant (died while pregnant).

These people donated their bodies to Von Hagens shows, I'm not even sure of the origins of how Von Hagens came to acquire his bodies.

Would you consider a corpse (that's basically turned into plastic by way of Von Hagens' method) an artwork?

I'm not sure.

[w1che]

You are more than likely the only one that has seen it except for pictures. Hell everything is art now, so I guess it is if that's what he calls it..

[DustyBottoms]

Art? I guess so...

Art (http://www.taxidermy.net/)

[ZenziC]

Wow! Who would have thunk.... we agree on something!

I was leaning towards "art" but I wasn't sure because of the subject matter, which are real corpses. Here's my explanation for being unsure

Here's examples of why it could be art:

• The Swimmer: a female corpse cut in half, posed in a swimming (freestyle) position and suspended in the air. You could laterally view her organs.
• The Runner: a male corpse, set in a running position, with all the skin removed and muscles "flying off" to show what would happen to the muscle if the skin was removed.
• The Chess Player: a male corpse sitting at a table, concentrating on a board of chess pieces. This was done to demonstrate the number of nerves going into the brain.
•The Horseman: a male corpse riding a horse corpse. His right hand is separated in two pieces, the bone hand holding the bridle and the muscle hand holding his brain. This was the most amazing part of the exhibit, the horse is rearing on his feet, perfectly balanced. That was the most time I spent at the exhibit, staring at the Horseman.

Here's examples of why it could just be plain educational:
• Various organs: As I'm from a medical town, I've seen plenty of livers and organs on display (not plastinated) at the local clinic's museum. But THIS exhibit had organs comparing healthy and bad organs (Healthy lung, Smokers Lung, Healthy liver, Enlarged liver, hearts, even boobies and weeners (not sure if breasts and dick are censored here)).
• Situs Invertus: A corpse had a very rare condition, although he grew up normally and had a normal life, called situs invertus. This means all the organs of his body were inverted (like left becomes right). They had a corpse that had the organs that a normal person has and had it side by side with the situs invertus corpse. Even though I'm not the doc, it was fascinating to see it up front.

Here's examples of why I'm NOT sure, not ready to call it art:

One exhibit I was a little bit troubled by was the plastinated babies. They had fetuses at stages of gestation (like 2 weeks to 9 months). They also had babies that may have died in the womb, such as one that had a swollen head, one that was missing the top of the head (no brain), two that were siamese twins (conjoined at the head and cheek), one that had the organs outside of its chest. It was educational but I felt quite sad looking at the baby exhibit and it was the one I wanted to leave the soonest.

[ZenziC]

Originally posted by ZenziC
(not sure if breasts and dick are censored here)).

Guess not. I was only using these words as part of my example. I'm not being crass.

[RosieWolf]

this is 'art'.... pretty kewl clock :)

Cable Clock (http://t2.technion.ac.il/~snoom/cable_clock.swf)

[Idnew]

That's what my clock looks like after some Saturday night out. :lol