Jon Tsoi is a resolute practitioner who expresses himself with visual and performance art in spare elements, and AI seems to appreciate this. He drops a tarpaulin, picks up a brush, and spews red paint the color of blood. He drops a heavy black stone. He blindfolds himself and exclaims, “Buy Jon Tsoi’s art… ” Buy my art.”
AI, in fact, loves this so much that he can be introduced into many scenes, from Italy, where the blood-red paint can become pasta sauce at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Roman coliseum, to Egypt, where his self-declarative command sentence can ride the side of the sphinx-like newfound hieroglyphic graffiti. Introduced into the ai realm and these other simulated realms his work can become part of the lingua franca of this new medium.
During his performances, Tsoi is the one who drops the first stone. This is why in his new wailing wall series, Tsoi drops the stone at a wall made of stone made of tsuris. He drops the stone here because everybody must get stoned during this period of a void. He also drops the stone, which becomes the rock, the stone over which is placed the dome, the dome of the rock, the dome of the stone.
Tsoi often screams out, “No more wars.” With these simple formerly missing ingredients presented in performance, it’s as if visual alchemy ensues, not unlike a key turning a lock that opens a door. All of a sudden, the geometric placement comes alive. And then Tsoi actively asks you to “buy my art”– “buy Jon Tsoi’s art”—so that he can make it real for you as well.
- Lee Klein 2024
