Body Worlds and the Mirror of Time at the O2

A few days ago I took myself down to the O2 to see the Body Worlds exhibition that they've got there.

So how was it?

Personally I found it all very interesting, I've never been to one of the shows before so this was all new for me. I did find it informative and it was quite fascinating to see how we're actually put together.

Although I knew what the exhibits they didn't look macabre or gory, in fact they look strangely unnatural and I didn't get any "ick this is a dead body" thoughts.

However there were some things that I found a touch gratuitous. I couldn't, for example, see the value in the gymnast on the rings having his internal organs hung beside him. It's as if they're trying at times to make an artistic statement, which to me just didn't work. I personally wouldn't mind my body being used in an exhibit to show someone how it works however to use it to make something that looks "interesting" to me seems somehow different.

Was it worth my £14 to get in? Definitely. However I'm not sure how useful the audio guide, an extra £3, was. I often found it a distraction and stopped commentaries short preferring instead just to look for myself.

One thing I should perhaps point out is that a number of the exhibits are things that I'd heard of from previous exhibitions (the man on horseback and the pregnant woman for example) so it might be the case that if you've seen one of these shows before you won't get as much out of this one as I did.

Oh and I'm still a bit clueless about the "mirror of time" thing. Yes there was a vague theme about aging on the information boards but that seemed to have little to do with the exhibits.