He must not cry

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An inaugural partnership between ACMI and Asialink, the exhibition, "I Thought I Knew but I was Wrong", curated by Alexie Glass and Sarah Tutton, travelled to Bangkok, Singapore and Seoul with Australia Council, DFAT and Arts Victoria support. It was reviewed in Real Time 2004 and a number of Asian language papers. He Must Not Cry, commissioned for that exhibition, continues Jones' 30 year critical contribution to new knowledge in feminist analysis by rendering gender-based generalisations more layered and more complex. With references to both the close-up of cinema and the face as subject in painting, this single screen video work directly addresses emotion as art through the intimate presentation of white, middle class males struggling with strong emotion as part of Jones' series, Tears for What was Done. As with all of Jones's research through art, she is here proposing an alternative social model in western culture (that men can cry publicly) - not providing answers but experiences of different ways of being. This propositional mode as here demonstrated is a further example of the social role of art.Jones succeeds in forming an eloquent portrait of familiarity and strangeness, her portrait is not of individuals or behavioural norms, but of emotional authenticity itself (Face Value: catalogue by curators Rilka Oakley, Annabel Pegasus). An upswell of sympathy and pathos cemented this as formidable yet unpretentious experience,' (www.tautai.org July 2005).This work was also exhibited in: 'Videola: Australian Video Art from the Seventies through to Today', Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney and Kings Gallery, Melbourne (05); 'Face Value: Video Portraiture from the Pacific', UNSW College ofFine Arts touring exhibition and catalogue (05-07); Shanghai International Science and Art Exposition (05) and in What Is..Sub-urban Video Lounge, Rotterdam; Director's Lounge Video Festival, Berlin and FABS Warsaw (07).