Ghost at the Feast- If wecan’t lay you to rest, perhaps we can raise you in dignity

Do funerals and death rituals exist to help the living, or do they benefit the dead as well? And why has it been a significant aspect of every culture on every continent from prehistory to now? Does it really matter, and what might the consequences be of abandoning these varied but universal rites?

The “Bodies Exhibition” is the catalyst, for this excursion.

In Aug. of 2005 an exhibit started touring the world. It garnered lots of media attention, because it featured actual dead human bodies. While this was perhaps macabre enough rumors began circulating about the actual bodies in the exhibit; who were they, where had they come from?

The Bodies Exhibit is exhibition that showcases human bodies that have been preserved through a process called plastination, and dissected to display bodily systems.

Human rights advocates have raised concerns however; that the bodies are those of executed Chinese prisoners, and that the families of the victims did not give consent.
The exhibition has claimed that the presumed origin of the bodies and fetuses "relies solely on the representations of its Chinese partners" and that they "cannot independently verify" that the bodies do not belong to executed prisoners.

Ghosts at the Feast documents a funeral ceremony for the ‘unburied’ at the Bodies Exhibit that opened in my neighborhood of Santa Monica, weaving a larger story about the sanctity of life and the universal significance of honoring the dead, as juxtaposed with the realities of organ trafficking, and those who exploit and desecrate ‘life’ in the name of ‘science’ and for profit.