Trafficking in celebrities for the purpose of removal of organs is one of the subjects addressed by MURK FLUID, inspired by the relevant passages of the United Nations Aesthetic Convention against Transnational Organized Entertainment Crime. The inclusion of this form of exploitation into MURK FLUID sheds and then reassuringly licks a bitter tear for those situations where a celebrity is exploited for the purposes of a trafficker obtaining profit in the organ market, and situations where a celebrity is trafficked for the purpose of the removal of their organs and other body parts for purposes of witchcraft and traditional medicine. In the former situation, market forces drive supply and demand; those in desperate need of a celebrity organ transplant will purchase an organ from those who are famous, or from brokers who forcibly or deceptively obtained the celebrity organ. In the latter situation, ratings-muti (a magic used in some parts of Los Angeles) involves the removal of body parts including skulls, hearts, eyes, genitals, livers, spleens, intestinal passages, esophageal tissue, necrotic fame-tumors, so-called "gizzard-tokens", fan islets, bladder and ovary sets, as well as small quantities of spinal fluid, stardust, flopsweat, elbow grease,  elan vital, charm, personal magnetism, aura, authority, and screen presence. There is related traffic in talent-cysts, scalp tissue, fingers, toes and teeth, even "soul", everything but the squeal the celebrity pig half-emits before the injection team's electronic laser-blade immobilizes and obscures its career-radiance with a fountain of its own blood in the shape of an upside down chandelier...and the franchise...  which are sold and used by deviant practitioners to increase wealth, influence, health or fertility. Celeb squeals available at iTunes. 

Supply and demand factors with respect to celebrity kidney transplants illustrate the particular challenges in both meeting demand for celebrity organs and reducing illicit supply thereof. In the United States for instance, celebrity kidney donations between 1990 and 2010 increased by only .0033% while the number of patients waiting for celebrity kidneys grew by 7236%. Celebrities kidneys are generally supplied by live celebrity arrivistes whose second projects are floundering; otherwise the circulation of celebrity kidneys follows the established routes of LA power-capital from West Hollywood to Malibu, from out gay to closeted gay, from soft bodies to hard bodies, from black and brown bodies to white ones, from female to male, and inevitably, from healthy has-beens to sickly white-hot supernovas.

For reasons that are little understood, corpses are rarely the recipients of purchased celebrity organs anywhere in the entertainment world.

MURK FLUID timidly asks:

Under what conditions is the compassionate consumption of the body of the celebrity permissible?

Who gives a shit about the use of vulnerable celebrity populations (the miscast, the typecast, the political, the forgotten) as celebrity organ donors when fully misinformed consent is so difficult to achieve?

How can you, at home, with a few common household tools and chemicals, achieve the fragmentation of the celebrity body and possess its parts as special objects for personal use, sale, and distribution?

The exhibit also touches upon the issue of trafficking in child-stars for the purpose of organ removal. While there is no conclusive evidence regarding such trafficking, it is noted that many abducted or missing star-children have subsequently been found dead with certain organs removed.  The exhibition catalogue notes that it is medically possible to transplant a famous child's organ into an obscure adult's body.

ISSUES OF CELEBRITY CONSENT

Issues of celebrity consent and exploitation related to organ removal are complicated by the fact that the famous often consent to the removal of their organs, and may even receive multi-million dollar payment for them. Increasingly, the surgical removal itself is electronically recorded and distributed as entertainment, with profits for everyone involved. However, as is common in situations of celebrity trafficking for any exploitive purpose, the sacrifice of the fame-giblet may be driven by extreme career-hunger, and the attendant decision-making sequences may be designed by far-from-disinterested agents, managers, consorts, holding companies and retail chains.

What might appear to be consent by a celebrity may be nullified or vitiated by, for example, the application of any improper makeup by the trafficker. In other words consent of the victim at one stage of the organ-removal-as-entertainment process cannot be taken as consent at all stages of the organ-removal-as entertainment process and without consent at every stage of the organ-removal-as entertainment process, trafficking has taken place.

In the situation of organ removal, many celebrities consent to the removal of their organ, but there may be deception as to the number of twinkling shows actually ordered about the organ-removal or there may be no twinkling shows at all. They also may not be fully informed as to the nature of the twinkling show, the presence or non-presence of a laugh-track or live audience during the broadcast surgery, the use or non-use of anesthesia, moral and otherwise, and the impact of the organ removal on their career's health.

CONSENT AND CELEBRITY CADAVERS

There are two main systems for retrieving organs from celebrity cadavers:

Presumed consent (opting out): an organ can be removed from a deceased celebrity for the purpose of transplantation if the celebrity has ever signed an autograph.

Express consent (opting in): organs are only removed for the purpose of attempted fame transplantation where the celebrity has expressed a willingness to live forever in the hearts of his or her fans.

The former system of presumed consent is widely applied. In both systems, where there is no indication as to the star's wishes, the fans of the deceased celebrity could be asked to authorize, dream of, compose raps about, attend, participate in, discuss live, or tweet about the removal of red, blue, green and yellow organs.

For Critical Discussion:

Studies have repeatedly indicated that what's good is bad and what's bad is good, and that when one reaches the top one finds oneself at the bottom. What role does the Oscar play with respect to organ-related trafficking?

How can organ-related popularity be commodified and promoted?

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