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05-27-14

Inside Alcatraz: The New Industries Building

Interior of the New Industries Building at Alcatraz

Interior of the New Industries Building; photo: Jan Stürmann

Visitors to @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz will encounter the island from new perspectives — not just metaphorically, but literally. With artworks occupying the New Industries Building, A Block, the Hospital, and the Dining Hall, the exhibition invites visitors into historic spaces that (with the exception of the Dining Hall) have usually been off limits to the public. This summer on Field Notes, we’ll be sharing stories from these remarkable spaces. We start our tour with the New Industries Building.

Sewing work room in the New Industries Building at Alcatraz

Inmates in the sewing work room; photo courtesy National Park Service

“You are required to work at whatever you are told to do.”
— USP Alcatraz Regulation 21: Work

In the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz, work was a privilege. One of the rewards for good behavior was a job, and for many inmates during the last two decades of the prison’s existence, that job was in the New Industries Building. Built between 1939 and 1941, this two-story laundry and manufacturing facility was designed to replace the Model Industries Building nearby, which had been the site of several escape attempts.

Working in “the Industries” offered its own kinds of escape — from boredom and physical inactivity, from social isolation, and even from a full prison term. In exchange for his labor, an inmate could earn a shortened sentence — an average of two days’ “good time” for a month’s work — as well as a little money to send to family or save for the future. (In the prison’s early days, the wage was five to 12 cents per hour.) Work could be a relief from the tedium of hours spent alone in a cell, and the daily walk down from the cellhouse to the New Industries Building offered expansive views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate.

For some prisoners, though, the sight of the city was a tormenting reminder of how far they really were from freedom, and work was not a respite but another dreary routine. Former inmate Jim Quillen remembered his job in the New Industries brush shop as “the most frustrating and boring, not to mention aggravating, work I have ever done — before, during, or after my release from prison.” Although workers had slightly more freedom to move and communicate at work than in the cellhouse, they were still under constant control: unarmed guards patrolled the floor, carrying whistles to signal to armed guards in the gun gallery overhead in case of trouble. (Visitors to @Large will be able to view artworks from inside the gun gallery.)

Gun gallery in the New Industries Building at Alcatraz

Gun gallery in the New Industries Building; photo: Jan Stürmann

Former guard Jim Albright described the New Industries Building as “filled with the assorted sounds of clothes washers and dryers, band saws, grinders, hammers, and sewing machines. . . . The combined scents of laundry detergent, cleaning fluids, and other chemicals once filled the air.” Workers here did laundry for military bases all over the Bay Area — initially, the entire upper floor was a laundry facility, the largest in San Francisco at the time — and manufactured clothing, gloves, shoes, brushes, and furniture for government use. During World War II, prisoners were also called upon to help the war effort: workers made tens of thousands of cargo nets for the US Navy and repaired the large buoys that secured the submarine net across San Francisco Bay.

Inmates making cargo nets in the New Industries Building on Alcatraz

Inmates making cargo nets; photo courtesy National Park Service

The official employer of workers on Alcatraz was not the penitentiary itself, but Federal Prison Industries, Incorporated, a government corporation launched in 1934 to create “factories with fences” in federal prisons. This corporation still exists today; operating under the name UNICOR, it has expanded to provide not only manual labor for government industry but also business services — such as prisoner-staffed call centers — for private companies.

The workshops in the New Industries Building started shutting down in October 1962, before the entire prison closed in 1963. Today, visitors to the national park can still see the views that were so tantalizing for the men who worked here, and observe the numerous birds that now use the cliffs outside New Industries as a nesting ground.

See the New Industries Building for yourself when you visit @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, on view September 27, 2014, through April 26, 2015. Advance tickets are strongly recommended; to purchase, visit Alcatraz Cruises.

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz is organized by the FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Lead support for the exhibition is provided by Roger Evans and Aey Phanachet and by the Fisher family.
@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, Alcatraz

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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name. 

The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace

Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.  The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
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In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@anateresafernandez’s Sanctuary rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?” In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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Titled Here we die, @mpane.aime’s design for Sanctuary was based on one of his carved plywood portraits from a series of the same name. He creates these portraits with an ancient tool called an adze, which allows him to scrape away layers of wood and reveal his subject by reduction. Each panel is roughly twelve by twelve inches: the equivalent of a human head’s surface area. “Because my work deals with problems of race and the stereotypes of black people, the three layers within four-millimeter-thick plywood make me think of the three layers within human skin,” he explains. Despite the dark histories underlying his work, Mpane’s portraits are not somber: his embrace of bright color lends an air of inextinguishable hope and promise. In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.”

The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.” The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
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Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
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Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling.

Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum.

Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
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Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling. Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum. Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
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Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment.

Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
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Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment. Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
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Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
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Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
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8/9
In honor of #Earthday we want to acknowledge that the former Cliff House and the Lands End exhibition were sited on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples and the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula.

While we appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate National Park, we must acknowledge that Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization
displaced and eradicated Native peoples across California, including the Yelamu beginning in the 18th Century. We offer respect to
the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Community and affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples.

We recognize the Ramaytush Ohlone's enduring commitment to steward the Earth. Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in how
we care for the lands, waters, and all the people must inspire our actions to achieve a truly ecologically sustainable future for San Francisco and our planet.

#LandsEnd featured works by a group of artists from around the world that strived to remind viewers of our interconnectedness via global currents of water and air, and to encourage visitors  to partake in all the fresh ideas and perspectives that emerge from the rising tides as we head deeper into this tumultuous century. The exhibition featured works by @suzannehusky  @brianjungen @catriona.jeffries @andreachungstudio 
@tylerpark_presents 
@angelo.filomeno  @galerielelong 
@project88mumbai 
@chester_arnold_painter 
@cclarkgallery @gerada_art @anateresafernandez 
@cclarkgallery @danielbeltraphoto @edelmangallery 
@adam5100 @dougaitkenworkshop 
@studioolafureliasson 
@mcevoyarts @elizabethellenwood 
@maja_petric 
@winstonwachter @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen 
@mcevoyarts @gulnurozdaglar @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen #williamtwiley #DougAitken #tuulanarhinen 
#andygoldsworthy #onebeachplastic #shumonahmed
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In honor of #Earthday we want to acknowledge that the former Cliff House and the Lands End exhibition were sited on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples and the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. While we appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate National Park, we must acknowledge that Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization displaced and eradicated Native peoples across California, including the Yelamu beginning in the 18th Century. We offer respect to the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramaytush Community and affirm their sovereign rights as First Peoples. We recognize the Ramaytush Ohlone's enduring commitment to steward the Earth. Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in how we care for the lands, waters, and all the people must inspire our actions to achieve a truly ecologically sustainable future for San Francisco and our planet. #LandsEnd featured works by a group of artists from around the world that strived to remind viewers of our interconnectedness via global currents of water and air, and to encourage visitors to partake in all the fresh ideas and perspectives that emerge from the rising tides as we head deeper into this tumultuous century. The exhibition featured works by @suzannehusky  @brianjungen @catriona.jeffries @andreachungstudio @tylerpark_presents @angelo.filomeno  @galerielelong @project88mumbai @chester_arnold_painter @cclarkgallery @gerada_art @anateresafernandez @cclarkgallery @danielbeltraphoto @edelmangallery @adam5100 @dougaitkenworkshop @studioolafureliasson @mcevoyarts @elizabethellenwood @maja_petric @winstonwachter @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen @mcevoyarts @gulnurozdaglar @paewhitestudio @jana.winderen #williamtwiley #DougAitken #tuulanarhinen #andygoldsworthy #onebeachplastic #shumonahmed
4 weeks ago
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