‘Explore the human body like never before’: New exhibit open at Broadway at the Beach
Ever seen a brain that has experienced a stroke? What about a cancerous spleen? Or a tongue with larynx?
Those parts and organs are now on display as part of the “Bodies Human: Anatomy in Motion” exhibit at Broadway at the Beach through September.
The bodies, body parts and organs on display are preserved through corrosion casting, which puts resin in veins, and plastination, or polymer preservation, for skin tissue to stay in its condition indefinitely.
Entering the display, visitors are first met by a skeleton and the first female body that has been showcased in the exhibit.
“You subtly bring people into the process because it is shocking,” said Brian Bouquet, president and producer at The Event Agency. “There’s some emotions when you first walk in. . . you may be seeing someone dead for the first time.”
At a molecular level, Bouquet said, now the bodies are a piece of plastic through the plastination process. But the bodies were alive at one point.
“It allows you to explore the human body like never before,” he said.
The bodies come from the Dalian Medical University in China, and take six months to go through the preservation process. Bouquet said the exhibition is great for people who are involved or interested in medicine.
Winding through the displays, visitors can see a child spinal cord compared to an adult spinal cord, male bodies, horizontal dissections of brains, an eyeball in socket and healthy lungs compared to smoker lungs. The exhibit also has its first female body on display.
Wandering through, English teacher Michael Webb, who is visiting Myrtle Beach from Connecticut, said most people see the anatomy of the human body in textbooks or online.
“It’s so different to stand here and physically see it,” Webb said. “There’s a deeper appreciation of what the body is. Pretty fascinating.”
This is the third time Bodies Human has been on display at Broadway at the Beach. The producers have also displayed a UFO exhibit and King Tut.
Hazel Farmer and her husband, Dave, said they had planned to visit the exhibit as soon as it opened.
“This is absolutely marvelous for humanity to know who they really are to see their bodies,” Hazel Farmer said. “We are so excited to be here.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2019 at 2:00 PM.
