In the music video for Michael Jackson’s “The Earth Song,” Michael mournfully performs on the set of a burnt-out forest with images of environmental destruction, animal slaughter, and war, intercut. Midway through, Michael’s despair turns to healing rage and images of destruction are shown in reverse. In The Body Song, “The Earth Song” video plays in reverse in its entirety. Because of the palindromic structure of the original video, the sequence of events in its reversal remains the same: disaster occurs and is undone. However, reversal creates a deceleration of energy, whereby Michael’s rage becomes a force of destruction, and recovery comes through its repression. As in other of his songs, Michael projects his personal anguish onto the world. In The Body Song, the focus is returned to Michael and his struggles with his body.

Permanent Collections

• Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA

Exhibitions

• Thriller, 303 Gallery, curated by Tom Borgese, New York, NY, USA, 1997
• Biovoid, Museum of Natural History, Lisbon, Portugal, 1998
• Regarding Beauty in Performance and Media Arts, 1967- 1998; Program III- Icons of Beauty, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA; Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, 1999
• Pop Unlimited, International Short Film Festival - Special Program, Oberhausen, Germany, 2000
• Making Time: Considering time as a material in contemporary film & video, Palm Beach Institute for Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL, USA; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA, USA, 2000
• Televisions, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2001
• Raw. Among the Ruins, Marres Center for Contemporary Art, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2007
• Playback, ARC/Musee d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France, 2007
• Moral Imagination – Contemporary Art and Climate Change, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland, 2008
• Jonathan Horowitz: And/Or, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY, USA, 2009
• The woods that see and hear, dertien hectare, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, 2009
• Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Grand Palais, Paris, France; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany; Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMME), Espoo, Finland, 2018