A character spun out of the photographic series, Daily Performances is Choc Latai Tzvi, or Choco as his adorers call him. He is believed by many to be the Chocolate Messiah. His name and his lineage can be traced to an actual false prophet of 1666, Shabbatai Tzvi . Shabbatai Tzvi had tens of thousands of Jewish followers, who believed he was their Savior, in Turkey, when the Sultan imprisoned and forced him, under pain of death, to renounce Judaism and all his mystical teachings and to convert to Islam. This left his followers and their descendants dubious of any Jewish cult-leader-type personality. When Choco's arrival was announced, the world was poised atop some new Millennium. The mystics had calculated Choco's return precisely on February 10, 2000, only four days before the American Chocolate Festival, Valentine's Day. Several hundred posters were hung around Columbus and the Ohio State University campus area inviting everyone to witness his arrival [fig. 4.8]. I spoke of the splendor of Choco to everyone I encountered: my own students, fellow students, professors, and new acquaintances on the street. When Choco did appear from an elevator on the ground floor to an audience of nearly one hundred people, he was wearing only small red underpants. He amused, delighted, and enlightened his followers with his Chocolo-Spiritual exercise [fig. 4.9], [fig. 4.10], and provided everyone with an abundance of Hershey's Kisses. His two lovely priestesses (played by Deirdre Szott and Tai Tsang) covered him in Hershey's Syrup [fig. 4.11], wrapped him in a white shroud, and placed him (not so gently- he slid off of the dolly and timbered into the horizontal position with a smear and a thud) back into the elevator. The elevator ascended to the top, then descended again. When it reached the ground floor, the doors mysteriously opened revealing the shroud now with the chocolate impression of Choco and his chocolate covered red underpants . The crowd cried, "Where is Choco?" The answer is not simple. Witnesses testified immediately following the ascension that, "He is risen," and that "He has gone to that great chocolate place in the sky!" Choco did speak of an everlasting love that is attainable through chocolate consumption. "I love chocolate, chocolate is love." A farewell wish for his followers: "May you should all be happy and have chocolate all the time. I am so happy when I am with chocolate! Be with chocolate, be with chocolate everybody!" It is clear that Choco wished for us to have, and be with chocolate, but what exactly should be done with the chocolate? How should we consume it, and in what quantities? Should we wear it as Choco did? Another point of debate comes from a proclamation that Choco made while he was being enshrouded: "Chocolate is not the only way, it is THE WAY!" Here, it seems that the Chocolate Messiah has contradicted himself. Is there another way to salvation, or is this the way? I will leave further dissection of these words to future Chocolate Sages.

MASS APPEAL

What Choco stands for, without proclaiming, it for is a serious questioning of customs, rituals, and values of our Occidental/Globalizing society. His use of familiar religious precepts and icons such as the shroud, loin cloth, the ascension, and even the poured chocolate as spilled blood/baptismal water point directly to a dialectic between Christian dogma/mythology, and Jewish resistance of such relics as proof of anything. Yet, Messianism is experienced throughout Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike, and Bodhisattvas, or living gods, are felt across the Asian Continent. Choco has been seen two other times in Columbus. On April 8, at an art opening on Buddha's birthday [fig. 4.12], [fig. 4.13], passing out chocolate coins to patrons at two art galleries. The last time at Chocolate Seder, a mock Passover Meal at the OSU Hillel, appearing at the time in the order of things when a glass of Chocolate milk (ceremonial wine) was poured, and the door was opened for the prophet Elijah (the messenger of the Messiah). Choco was first seen in Chicago, at Columbia College Chicago, performing Simultaneous Chocolotization in conjunction with the Altering Altars exhibition opening (which included a St. Choco altarpiece). This exhibition spanned the Halloween/Day of the Dead celebrations in the community. Choco sprang from a chocolate smelling shroud, wearing, as usual, nothing but his small red underpants. He delivered a Hershey's Kiss personally to each of the over 100 audience members/participants. He spoke briefly about the power of chocolate and love, then instructed them, in unison, to slowly unwrap the chocolate, place it in mouth, let it melt, and be aware together of its effects as it enters the system. The second coming of Choco in Chicago occurred on May 8, 2001 [fig. 4. 14]. On stage he performed a pelvis gyrating Chocolo Dance of Love, [fig. 4.15], [fig. 4. 16]with audience participation. Chocolate kisses were passed out to every member of the audience by Priestesses played by Madeleine Fix-Hanson and Leslie Riibe. As an exercise of Chocolo Karma, Choco asked each member of the audience to give away their piece of chocolate, and instructed that if done properly, each person will receive the gift of chocolate. While one Priestess played trance like music, the other shaved (the mirror image of) the Hebrew letters for Life out of his chest hair. Choco explained that a souls passage through life is created by making impressions on other living souls. He asked the audience to do a Simultaneous Chocolotization, and to watch him as he would become the external manifestation of the internal experience of taking in chocolate. Choco was then covered in four cans of Hershey's Syrup [fig. 4. 17], [fig. 4. 18], [fig. 4. 19], and wrapped in a canvas shroud [fig. 4. 20], [fig. 4. 21]. The curtains whooshed shut and shortly whooshed open again to reveal the Priestesses holding the life size chocolate impression that Choco had made [fig. 4. 23]. The priestesses waved and cried "good-bye Choco!" to the lights and the high ceiling above the crowd [fig. 4.22]. Flash bulbs were popping and Choco was gone again.

THE EXPLANATION: WHAT IS CHOCO?

There are degrees of Choco, and to experience him live is the purest way. Choco is a performance art piece, and videos document the performance as well as my transformation from myself to Choco, and back again. A website also exists to tell an enhanced, glorified account of Choco sightings. In the website, Choco becomes (nearly) larger than life, visiting holy places and doing holy things. These images illustrate Choco as if he were a real prophet, with a true and enormous global (and interplanetary) following. When he stands, in a digitally manipulated image (DMI) [fig 4.24], anointed with chocolate on the Temple Mount, known by Muslims as Haram al Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary), which holds the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, Choco stands in the place where Abraham bound Isaac for sacrifice, where the first and second ancient Temples of Judaism stood, where the prophet Mohammed, in a dream, ascended to heaven from horseback. (This time it is a Jewish-Muslim dialectic). It is a stone's throw for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the place where Jesus was prepared for burial, as well as Via Dolorosa, a stone path nestled in the Arab market of the Old City of Jerusalem, bearing the Twelve Stations of the Cross. Jewish Messianists and legends expect the first sighting of the Messiah to occur over the Eastern Gate of the Old City [fig. 4.14]. When he meditates and prays, doused in chocolate syrup (in a DMI) with Buddhists monks [fig. 4.25], outside a state capitol rotunda, as they protest the Taliban's destruction of ancient Buddhist monuments, again he posits himself between religious conflicts and culture clashes. When he rises above a still smoldering lower Manhattan skyline (in a DMI) , with his chest hair (actually) trimmed like topiary into the Hebrew word for Life, he affirms our hope for life, and as the type reads in both English and Hebrew, that he will answer the call to Renew Our Days (Hadesh Yamenu). When that poster is placed in a context [fig. 4. 26], albeit a virtual one, with the following caption, as it is seen on the website, that hope is held out by all those who suspend disbelief in the Chocolate Messiah: An Orthodox Jewish teen passes a barrier in West Jerusalem covered in posters depicting the Return of the Chocolate Messiah, November 12, 2001. Since the Terrorist attacks in New York City of September 11, there has been renewed faith in the legend among the Chocoists that an Alien Spacecraft will return His Chocolatey Goodness, and a new era of harmony and understanding will be ushered in. The Choco of the Internet travels to places of conflict and entanglement to offer a simple, if not symbolic solution: Open your heart, share chocolate, experience love.