The day after Codex, I took the ferry to Alcatraz Island to see @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. Shattering. Stunning. Installations in several parts of the former prison, itself a wrenching experience to walk through, even years after it was closed and made into a state park. The installation is only there through April 26. Just get a plane ticket. Don't miss it.
Ai Weiwei, himself a detainee forbidden to leave China, directed this massive installation about prisoners of conscience worldwide from his home.
From the website:
“The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.”
— Ai Weiwei
"The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is internationally renowned for work that defies the distinction between art and activism. In this exhibition of new works created specifically for Alcatraz, Ai responds to the island’s layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress, a notorious federal penitentiary, a site of Native American heritage and protest, and now one of America’s most visited national parks. Revealing new perspectives on Alcatraz, the exhibition raises questions about freedom of expression and human rights that resonate far beyond this particular place."
Photos ©2015 Ellen Ziegler