January 16 - April 8, 2007
Video Gallery

Danish artist Jesper Just taps the universal power of music to create lushly filmed, seductive works that challenge the traditional notion that masculinity is incompatible with external displays of emotion. Just’s critically acclaimed mix of tenderness, humor, and tongue-in-cheek incongruity is exemplified by No Man is an Island II. In this video, the emotional walls between the denizens of a dimly-lit strip joint suddenly crumble when a young man unexpectedly breaks into a heartfelt rendition of Roy Orbison’s tear-jerker classic “Crying.” In Bliss and Heaven, a freight container is transformed into a vast concert hall and becomes the setting for a decidedly unorthodox rendition of Olivia Newton John’s “Please Don’t Keep Me Waiting”; and in Something to Love, a music-box refrain sets into motion an emotional encounter between an elderly man and a young couple locked in a passionate embrace.

Still from No Man Is an Island II 2004. 16 mm transferred to video; running time 4 min. Courtesy the artist and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York. artist.

This presentation is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by Assistant Curator René Morales .