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Past

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz

September 27, 2014 – April 26, 2015 at Alcatraz Island

“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 responded 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 raised questions about freedom of expression and human rights that resonated far beyond this particular place.

Ai’s sculpture, sound, and mixed-media installations occupied four locations in the former prison: the New Industries Building; a group of cells in A Block; the Hospital; and the Dining Hall. With the exception of the Dining Hall, these areas were usually restricted to the public, but all were open throughout the run of the exhibition. @Large turned Alcatraz into a space for dialogue about how we define liberty and justice, individual rights and personal responsibility. In artworks that balanced political impact with aesthetic grace, the exhibition directly and imaginatively addressed the situation of people around the world who have been deprived of their freedom for speaking out about their beliefs — people like Ai himself.

A vocal critic of his nation’s government, Ai was secretly detained by Chinese authorities for 81 days in 2011, and only regained possession of his passport on July 22, 2015. As a result, the artist was unable to visit Alcatraz during the planning of this exhibition; he developed the artwork at his studio in Beijing, with the help of the FOR-SITE Foundation. Ai embraced the ironies of creating site-specific art for a place he couldn’t see, and of celebrating free expression while working under severe constraints. Conflict and struggle have only galvanized the artist’s commitment to art as an act of conscience. With this project, he aimed to expand our understanding of “the purpose of art, which is the fight for freedom.”

The project is featured in the FOR-SITE debut feature-length documentary, Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly.

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Featured Works

  • Ai Weiwei, With Wind, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz)
    With Wind
  • Ai Weiwei, Trace, 2014 (installation detail, New Industries Building, Alcatraz)
    Trace
  • Ai Weiwei, Refraction, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz)
    Refraction
  • Ai Weiwei, Stay Tuned, 2014 (installation detail, A Block, Alcatraz)
    Stay Tuned
  • Entrance to the psychiatric observation rooms, Alcatraz Hospital
    Illumination
  • Ai Weiwei, Blossom, 2014 (installation detail, Alcatraz Hospital)
    Blossom
  • Yours Truly postcards completed by visitors to @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
    Yours Truly

Related Media

  • Video: Inside @Large
  • Ai Weiwei, With Wind, 2014 (installation detail, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, With Wind, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, With Wind, 2014 (installation detail, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Trace, 2014 (installation detail, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Trace, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Trace, 2014 (detail); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Refraction, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Refraction, 2014 (installation view, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Refraction, 2014 (installation detail, New Industries Building, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Stay Tuned, 2014 (installation detail, A Block, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Stay Tuned, 2014 (installation detail, A Block, Alcatraz); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Blossom, 2014 (installation detail, Alcatraz Hospital); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Blossom, 2014 (installation detail, Alcatraz Hospital); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Entrance to the psychiatric observation rooms in Alcatraz Hospital, site of Ai Weiwei’s sound installation Illumination, 2014; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Psychiatric observation room in Alcatraz Hospital, site of Ai Weiwei’s sound installation Illumination, 2014; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Yours Truly, 2014 (installation view, Alcatraz Dining Hall); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei, Yours Truly, 2014 (installation detail, Alcatraz Dining Hall); photo: Jan Stürmann
    Installation Views
  • Exhibition curator Cheryl Haines consults with Ai Weiwei at the artist's studio in Beijing, June 2014; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Ai Weiwei and curator Cheryl Haines meet at the artist's studio, with design studies for Trace laid out on the floor; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Curator Cheryl Haines and Ai Weiwei discuss preliminary designs for With Wind at the artist's studio in Beijing; photo: Jan Stürmann
    A model of Refraction at Ai Weiwei's studio in Beijing; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Porcelain flowers for Blossom in preparation at Ai Weiwei's studio in Beijing; photo: Jan Stürmann
    Designers assemble portraits for Trace at Ai Weiwei's studio in Beijing; photo: Jan Stürmann
    A volunteer assembles a portrait for Trace in San Francisco; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Installing Trace in the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Installing Trace in the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Unpacking the porcelain flowers for Blossom in the Hospital; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Installing Refraction in the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Installing Refraction in the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    The head portion of With Wind suspended in a shipping container outside the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Installing With Wind in the New Industries Building; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Curator Cheryl Haines consults with Stay Tuned sound designers in A Block; photo: Nina Dietzel
    Behind the Scenes
  • @Large on Google Cultural Institute
  • In the Press
Ai Weiwei
Ai WeiweiChinese, born 1957

Ai Weiwei is a Beijing-based artist and activist whose work encompasses sculpture, installation, photography, film, architecture, curation, and social criticism. His art has been featured in major solo exhibitions including Ai Weiwei at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, UK, 2014; Evidence at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2014; and Ai Weiwei: According to What?, which was organized by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2009, and traveled to North American venues in 2013–14. Ai collaborated with architects Herzog & de Meuron on the “bird’s nest” stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2015.

Ai Weiwei Website

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz was presented by the FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
@Large project partner logos

Support for the exhibition is provided by Roger Evans and Aey Phanachet, the Fisher family, and other generous donors.

FOR-SITE Foundation project team: Cheryl Haines, executive director and exhibition curator; Marnie Burke de Guzman, special projects director; Jackie von Treskow, program director; Alison Konecki, development and outreach associate; Miegan Riddle, development consultant; Jennifer Burke/Industry, visual design; Juliet Clark, writer and editor; Tyler Reed, content manager; Jan Stürmann, video production; Ari Salomon, web developer

Projects

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    • @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
      • With Wind
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      • Illumination
      • Blossom
      • Yours Truly
    • Art About Place: FOR-SITE Foundation at the Presidio
    • International Orange
    • Presidio Habitats
    • The Marvelous Museum: A Mark Dion Project
    • Pae White: In Between the Outside-In
    • Chris Drury: Mushrooms | Clouds
    • Shi Guorui: Reproduction and Refashioning
    • Richard Long: The Path Is the Place Is the Line
    • New Work by Cornelia Parker
  • Plan Your Visit
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Field Notes

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    “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” Virtual Cinema Release

  • Alfredo Jaar

    Black Lives Matter

  • AWW_HRW

    Ai Weiwei + Human Rights Watch

Artist Editions

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  • #LandsEnd featured artist Andrea Chung’s video Come Back to Jamaica (2009), & Come Back to Yourself (2013), will be… https://t.co/HXwouRNnBa
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Instagram

Get to know the history of FOR-SITE with our founder @cheryllhaines
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Get to know the history of FOR-SITE with our founder @cheryllhaines
1 day ago
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1/9
“Overall, this project examines the effects of xenophobia and national identification in southern Africa, and how this provides a context with which to understand the rise of nationalism in numerous countries across Europe and Southern Africa.”#MelekoMokgosi, Sanctuary(2018)
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“Overall, this project examines the effects of xenophobia and national identification in southern Africa, and how this provides a context with which to understand the rise of nationalism in numerous countries across Europe and Southern Africa.”#MelekoMokgosi, Sanctuary(2018)
3 days ago
View on Instagram |
2/9
The fantastical realms portrayed in @shivaahmadi_studio’s large-scale paintings and animated video adaptations teeter on the threshold of annihilation, as a menagerie of Orwellian creatures carelessly brandishes bombs, hand grenades, and pipes. Stability and security are at their mercy; chaos is poised to erupt. Based in California but born in Tehran, Ahmadi was a witness to the destruction of the Iran-Iraq War at a formative time of her life. Her art reflects this experience in exploring the intersections of religion and politics, power and corruption, and the psychic landscape of war — a fearsome, controlling power that threatens to spin out of control at any moment. The delicate lines, gold tracery, and tiny figures suggest Persian and Indian miniature paintings transposed to a grand scale. The watercolor, imprecise and flecked with hair, rice, and salt granules — elements that introduce uncontrolled effects — conveys a precarious foundation beneath the precise, mechanistic imagery of war. 

Shiva Ahmadi’s Lotus and Knot was featured in #ForSite’s 2016 exhibition Home Land Security
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The fantastical realms portrayed in @shivaahmadi_studio’s large-scale paintings and animated video adaptations teeter on the threshold of annihilation, as a menagerie of Orwellian creatures carelessly brandishes bombs, hand grenades, and pipes. Stability and security are at their mercy; chaos is poised to erupt. Based in California but born in Tehran, Ahmadi was a witness to the destruction of the Iran-Iraq War at a formative time of her life. Her art reflects this experience in exploring the intersections of religion and politics, power and corruption, and the psychic landscape of war — a fearsome, controlling power that threatens to spin out of control at any moment. The delicate lines, gold tracery, and tiny figures suggest Persian and Indian miniature paintings transposed to a grand scale. The watercolor, imprecise and flecked with hair, rice, and salt granules — elements that introduce uncontrolled effects — conveys a precarious foundation beneath the precise, mechanistic imagery of war. Shiva Ahmadi’s Lotus and Knot was featured in #ForSite’s 2016 exhibition Home Land Security
5 days ago
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3/9
In #AiWeiwei’s Blossom (2015), he quietly transformed the utilitarian fixtures in several Hospital ward cells and medical offices into delicate porcelain bouquets. @aiww designed intricately detailed encrustations of ceramic flowers to fill the sinks, toilets, and tubs that were once used by hospitalized prisoners. Blossom drew on and altered natural imagery as well as traditional Chinese arts. Rather than referring to national iconography, however, the flowers here carried other associations. The work could have been seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. #ForSite #ArtAboutPlace
In #AiWeiwei’s Blossom (2015), he quietly transformed the utilitarian fixtures in several Hospital ward cells and medical offices into delicate porcelain bouquets. @aiww designed intricately detailed encrustations of ceramic flowers to fill the sinks, toilets, and tubs that were once used by hospitalized prisoners. Blossom drew on and altered natural imagery as well as traditional Chinese arts. Rather than referring to national iconography, however, the flowers here carried other associations. The work could have been seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. #ForSite #ArtAboutPlace
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In #AiWeiwei’s Blossom (2015), he quietly transformed the utilitarian fixtures in several Hospital ward cells and medical offices into delicate porcelain bouquets. @aiww designed intricately detailed encrustations of ceramic flowers to fill the sinks, toilets, and tubs that were once used by hospitalized prisoners. Blossom drew on and altered natural imagery as well as traditional Chinese arts. Rather than referring to national iconography, however, the flowers here carried other associations. The work could have been seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. #ForSite #ArtAboutPlace
1 week ago
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4/9
Echoing the project's ethos of plurality, the Sanctuary (2018) Salon series - a cornerstone of the Sanctuary's public programming - wove together the voices of local artists whose practices span creative disciplines, including spoken word, music, dance, and performance.

Participating artists included: 
Jacques Ibula, Adam Bowers, Deema K. Shehabi, Lenora Lee Dance (Yi-Ting Hsu, Lynn Huang, Hien Huynh, Eric Koziol, and Shannon Preto), and Hope Mohr Dance with "Sanctuary" artist Ranu Mukherjee (Marlie Couto, Cylie Kindval, Hope Mohr, and Karla Quintero). Sanctuary was on view at Fort Mason Chapel from 

#FORSITE #ArtAboutPlace #Sanctuary #palastine
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Echoing the project's ethos of plurality, the Sanctuary (2018) Salon series - a cornerstone of the Sanctuary's public programming - wove together the voices of local artists whose practices span creative disciplines, including spoken word, music, dance, and performance. Participating artists included: Jacques Ibula, Adam Bowers, Deema K. Shehabi, Lenora Lee Dance (Yi-Ting Hsu, Lynn Huang, Hien Huynh, Eric Koziol, and Shannon Preto), and Hope Mohr Dance with "Sanctuary" artist Ranu Mukherjee (Marlie Couto, Cylie Kindval, Hope Mohr, and Karla Quintero). Sanctuary was on view at Fort Mason Chapel from #FORSITE #ArtAboutPlace #Sanctuary #palastine
1 week ago
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5/9
Long time For-Site collaborator #AndyGoldsworthy’s new permanent outdoor artwork at @yspsculpture Peter’s Fold, marks the retirement of Founding Director Sir Peter Murray CBE, who was Knighted in 2022 for his contribution to culture.

Peter’s Fold joins three other permanent sculptures by Goldsworthy that relate to the history and politics of landscape.
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Long time For-Site collaborator #AndyGoldsworthy’s new permanent outdoor artwork at @yspsculpture Peter’s Fold, marks the retirement of Founding Director Sir Peter Murray CBE, who was Knighted in 2022 for his contribution to culture. Peter’s Fold joins three other permanent sculptures by Goldsworthy that relate to the history and politics of landscape.
2 weeks ago
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6/9
#AiWeiwei has covered the facade of Old Québec’s Royal Battery with discarded lifejackets, used by Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe and recovered by the artist in 2016 on the Greek island of Lesbos. The installation, Life Jackets (2022) is on view in Québec City as part of the eighth edition of @lespassagesinsolites, a festival of public that seeks to offer unusual, surprising encounters in the urban experience.

Image: PUBLIC INSTALLATION, June 25 - October 10, 2022 Québec City, Canada
#AiWeiwei has covered the facade of Old Québec’s Royal Battery with discarded lifejackets, used by Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe and recovered by the artist in 2016 on the Greek island of Lesbos. The installation, Life Jackets (2022) is on view in Québec City as part of the eighth edition of @lespassagesinsolites, a festival of public that seeks to offer unusual, surprising encounters in the urban experience.

Image: PUBLIC INSTALLATION, June 25 - October 10, 2022 Québec City, Canada
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#AiWeiwei has covered the facade of Old Québec’s Royal Battery with discarded lifejackets, used by Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe and recovered by the artist in 2016 on the Greek island of Lesbos. The installation, Life Jackets (2022) is on view in Québec City as part of the eighth edition of @lespassagesinsolites, a festival of public that seeks to offer unusual, surprising encounters in the urban experience. Image: PUBLIC INSTALLATION, June 25 - October 10, 2022 Québec City, Canada
2 weeks ago
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7/9
San Francisco–based Adam Eli Feibelman (@adam5100) includes street art and raw data as two sources of inspiration for his incredibly detailed, hand-cut, multilayered stencil work, which immerses the viewer in complex urban landscapes, and in abstract fields of repeating and braided patterns. This social and geometric intricacy is reflected and amplified by his painstaking process, which is wholly improvised rather than based on predrawn outlines or compositional guides. Spread across four panels that subtly invoke allegories represented in stained glass, Wrath of a Mother Scorned speaks to the devastation caused by California’s increasingly apocalyptic seasonal wildfires. Fiercely radiating geometric patterns puncture layers of billowing smoke, while a great spiral sweeps up and curls to form the profile of a crashing wave or a hurricane viewed from Earth’s orbit. Feibelman’s elemental references to fire, water, and air speak to the vast scale of the planet’s climate systems while clearly linking them to our firsthand experience with a local—and immediate—threat. #landsend #artaboutplace #sanfrancisco #climatechange #climatecrisis
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San Francisco–based Adam Eli Feibelman (@adam5100) includes street art and raw data as two sources of inspiration for his incredibly detailed, hand-cut, multilayered stencil work, which immerses the viewer in complex urban landscapes, and in abstract fields of repeating and braided patterns. This social and geometric intricacy is reflected and amplified by his painstaking process, which is wholly improvised rather than based on predrawn outlines or compositional guides. Spread across four panels that subtly invoke allegories represented in stained glass, Wrath of a Mother Scorned speaks to the devastation caused by California’s increasingly apocalyptic seasonal wildfires. Fiercely radiating geometric patterns puncture layers of billowing smoke, while a great spiral sweeps up and curls to form the profile of a crashing wave or a hurricane viewed from Earth’s orbit. Feibelman’s elemental references to fire, water, and air speak to the vast scale of the planet’s climate systems while clearly linking them to our firsthand experience with a local—and immediate—threat. #landsend #artaboutplace #sanfrancisco #climatechange #climatecrisis
2 weeks ago
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8/9
#LandsEbd featured artist @dougaitkenworkshop’s WILDERNESS streaming on @mubi!
⁠
"Characters who linger on a beach, seduced by the views of the Pacific and the rhythms of the surf. A sequence of close-ups dig into their faces, photographing their spectrum of reactions in the presence of the landscape in front of them. Long shots capture the colors of the sun among the clouds, waves and a column of smoke on the horizon. But there is nothing reassuring or idyllic about the beach on the Pacific where Doug Aitken sets his short Wilderness, conceived last April as an immersive video installation for @303gallery in New York. Nature is shown almost en passant, without giving the viewer time to dwell on the images. Aitken focuses on the ways in which his characters contemplate the landscape, rather than the landscape itself. It is a nature always mediated by the perspective of the characters who observe it, indirectly returned to the viewer through a facial expression, a movement of the eyes. A mediation that also extends to smartphone and camera technology. Carmel (Regina Hall) said in the TV series Nine Perfect Strangers that nothing "is real until you post it on social networks", summarizing one of the great contradictions of our time as the impossibility of authentic and disinterested contemplation." -on www.duels.it the complete review by Edoardo Pelligra ⁠
⁠
@303gallery @regenprojects @victoriamirogallery @galerieevapresenhuber @mubiitalia @mubifrance @mubiuk @mubibrasil @mubiusa @duels.it ⁠@inlandempire92
@mubideutschland #mubiitalia #mubifrance #mubiuk #mubibrasil #mubiusa #mubideutschland #dougaitken #contemporaryart #installationart #filmart #installationart #losangeles #venicebeach⁠ 
⁠
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#LandsEbd featured artist @dougaitkenworkshop’s WILDERNESS streaming on @mubi! ⁠ "Characters who linger on a beach, seduced by the views of the Pacific and the rhythms of the surf. A sequence of close-ups dig into their faces, photographing their spectrum of reactions in the presence of the landscape in front of them. Long shots capture the colors of the sun among the clouds, waves and a column of smoke on the horizon. But there is nothing reassuring or idyllic about the beach on the Pacific where Doug Aitken sets his short Wilderness, conceived last April as an immersive video installation for @303gallery in New York. Nature is shown almost en passant, without giving the viewer time to dwell on the images. Aitken focuses on the ways in which his characters contemplate the landscape, rather than the landscape itself. It is a nature always mediated by the perspective of the characters who observe it, indirectly returned to the viewer through a facial expression, a movement of the eyes. A mediation that also extends to smartphone and camera technology. Carmel (Regina Hall) said in the TV series Nine Perfect Strangers that nothing "is real until you post it on social networks", summarizing one of the great contradictions of our time as the impossibility of authentic and disinterested contemplation." -on www.duels.it the complete review by Edoardo Pelligra ⁠ ⁠ @303gallery @regenprojects @victoriamirogallery @galerieevapresenhuber @mubiitalia @mubifrance @mubiuk @mubibrasil @mubiusa @duels.it ⁠@inlandempire92 @mubideutschland #mubiitalia #mubifrance #mubiuk #mubibrasil #mubiusa #mubideutschland #dougaitken #contemporaryart #installationart #filmart #installationart #losangeles #venicebeach⁠ ⁠
3 weeks ago
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9/9

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