PPE POLL of the WEEK (WEEK 11):

Currently exhibiting at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is an exploration of the human body. The 'Body Laid Bare: Masterpieces from Tate', is considered a major exhibition for the city in 2017.

The NZ Herald describes the exhibition as 'Beautiful, sensual and at times provocative' with the 100+ artworks from the Tate gallery, London, telling the story of the artists’ captivation with the human body over the last two centuries.

You can read more about this exhibition here: http://events.nzherald.co.nz/2017/the-body-laid-bare-masterpieces-from-tate/auckland

Captivation with the human body is not something new.

Consider this very different form of exhibition to the one currently visiting our city:

GermanDr Gunther von Hagens also exhibits the human form but his exhibits are real dead bodies. On display are whole cadavers and body parts — as well as fetuses shown in a mother's uterus — that have been put through plastination to preserve the specimens indefinitely. The bodies are posed in various positions (including on a swing and playing a musical instrument), some skinless or with muscles flayed.

His website claims his primary goal is health education but some would claim he is an artist as he chooses to exhibit these real human bodies in public galleries.

Proponents argue the displays offer a fascinating and educational look at the inner workings of the human body, providing an invaluable teaching tool with the ability to compare smoker's lung and a normal lung, the effect of alcoholism on a liver and see what hip replacements look like.

Opponents feel that across cultures there is a universal understanding that the dead shall be respected and the sometimes provacative poses of the cadavars may not uphold this expected respect. While subjects may give consent to being preserved in this way they have no control over the ways their bodies will eventually be displayed for education - or for public entertainment.