2015
New York, USA
One Buck marks an early moment in the emergence of Stone Chun Shi’s Initial Language.
For Stone, the one-dollar bill is not a symbol but a unit, an elemental structure carrying belief, power, circulation, and illusion. It condenses the logic of American society into its smallest visible form, where faith and instability coexist within a single object.
Viewing New York as a museum without walls, Stone transformed a trailer into a mobile exhibition space. A three-dimensional dollar form was mounted onto it and released into the streets, allowing the work to move through the city as part of everyday life.
As One Buck traveled across New York, it attracted spontaneous gatherings. The work did not demand interpretation; it existed, moved, and was encountered.
Reflecting on this process, Stone noted: “Once One Buck entered the streets, neither its future nor my own could be predicted. We move through life without knowing direction or outcome, forward or backward, upward or downward. We are simply on the road.
Only in New York, this open street museum, can art break free from walls and exist in direct relation to people. This is the aim of my work and the path of the art I pursue.”
One Buck represents a formative step toward Stone’s later practice, where visual language is built from foundational units and art returns to a condition of openness, movement, and lived time.
