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 Starting Sept. 27, the former island penitentiary turned U.S.
national park in San Francisco Bay will offer visitors the
opportunity to view seven installations custom-designed by the
artist and activist Ai Weiwei.
Ai, for decades a critic of the Chinese government's record on
free speech and human rights, created the pieces without ever
having visited Alcatraz. He has been banned from leaving China
since his 81-day detention there in 2011.
The exhibit, called @Large, reflects the sting and isolation of
detention with works like the massive "Trace," featuring
portraits of 176 activists and political prisoners built
entirely from 1.2 million Lego bricks.
"When people are detained for their beliefs, you get a sense of
isolation, that you're being forgotten by the world," said
Cheryl Haines, founding executive director of the FOR-SITE
Foundation, organizer of the exhibit.
"It's his eloquent way of saying 'We have not forgotten about
you,'" Haines said of Ai's "Trace."
Another work, "Stay Tuned," spans 12 single-block cells, each
outfitted with a stool and speakers that play a different
recording from artists who have been detained, including the
Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot.
After Haines approached Ai about creating an exhibit at
Alcatraz, the entire project came together in about 9 months,
much faster than the typical two- to three-year time frame.
The artist is subject to travel restrictions and it is unclear
when they will be lifted. When asked why Ai was not allowed to
attend the event in San Francisco, China's Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she does not understand "the
relevant situation."
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"China is a country ruled by law," Hua said. "The relevant
departments, in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations on
entering and exiting the country, deal with the entry and exit of
Chinese citizens."
The Alcatraz exhibit expands on themes Ai, 57, had explored
throughout his career as well as in an exhibit earlier this year in
Berlin, which featured a reproduction of the white cell where he was
held by Chinese authorities. In the latest work, the focus remains
more on the experiences of other detainees.
The installations cover four areas in Alcatraz, including three that
are typically blocked from the public.
The infamous former prison, with thousands of visitors a day, also
hosts a bird sanctuary, making it necessary for organizers to
assemble the works without the machinery they might have otherwise
used.
"Refraction," a five-ton sculpture that incorporates teapots and
reflective panels from solar cookers in Tibet, required painstaking
manual labor to install. The sculpture also stands behind Plexiglas,
partly to avoid disturbing the Brandt's Cormorant birds nesting
nearby.
Ai is best-known for his part in designing the Bird's Nest stadium
for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
(Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing; editing by
Gunna Dickson)
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