Upon seeing real human bodies preserved and posed in a museum exhibit, an artist might marvel at the sculptural qualities of the human form.
An athlete could find new insight into the interplay of muscle and bone. A cardiologist could have a non-scientific, even spiritual, reaction to the heart.
That’s the beauty of “Body Worlds & The Story of the Heart,” the exhibit of 18 human bodies and 200 specimens preserved through plastination, that opened Friday in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
“Some people will have very strange feelings looking at it,” says Denver cardiologist Richard Collins. “There’s that brain-heart connection. You can see the anatomy of the heart, but it won’t show you what we feel.”
Although he spends his days working to treat and prevent heart disease, Collins still marvels at the object of his life’s work. “It’s an incredible feeling to hold a beating human heart. I find it quite spiritual.”
We know so much about the heart, and in this exhibit, we can see it from the inside out, yet its fundamental mystery remains. Even scientists cannot fully explain what happens at the exact moment a human heart starts to beat, about 22 days after conception.
“It starts to beat in coordination, in waves. It really is a molecular mystery,” says Bridget C. Coughlin, curator of human health at the museum, where the exhibit will run through July 18.
Hearts can be tender, tough, cold, broken, soft. It’s that ineffability that designer Dr. Angelina Whalley and husband Dr. Gunther von Hagens, inventor of the plastination process, aim to communicate in their work.
Visitors enter a black-walled space that pulsates with the sound of a heartbeat. In a clear box sits the star of the show, a redder-than-blood cardiac muscle entwined with blood vessels.
Nearby, a medical-school- style skeleton stands at attention, but this Mr. Bones still has his arteries, tinted red in the plastination process.
Next to the skeleton, “Habitat of the Soul” describes Egyptian, Aztec, Jewish and Christian heart symbolism, setting the stage for “Praying Skeleton,” a female figure holding a heart that “praises the vessels of the heart, indicating the fragility of our existence.”
The bodies are at once fragile and strong. A pair of ice skaters rotates slowly, the female body held aloft by the male.
“The Javelin Thrower’s” rib cage opens, offering a clear view of his spine.
As thought she has just released her bow, “The Archer’s” muscles remain tensed, her thigh muscles expanded to show their internal connections.
“Pedaling Woman,” split into three lengthwise slices, demonstrates how densely packed are the organs and muscles within the body.
Throughout the exhibit, and in each body, the heart and its veins, arteries and capillaries power the parts and the whole.
Museum and health officials hope that the exhibit will power a shift in behavior as people ponder — and then act on — what they’ve seen.
“In an age of infinite exposure, ‘Body Worlds’ provides something that no virtual reality or virtual environment can. It is instantly and deeply meaningful to everyone because everyone has a human body,” says Coughlin. She says the museum’s aim is to show, rather than tell.
“We know what we should do — exercise 20–30 minutes, eat better — but we’re not doing it. What is the missing link? It’s people understanding the science and internalizing it. The link is that it’s about you.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
