DOWNLOAD VIDEO
A new art installation in America’s most notorious prison asks viewers to reconsider their concept of freedom.
Chinese
artist
Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most famous political dissidents. He has been unable to leave China since 2011, when authorities confiscated his passport and detained him for three months, citing reasons related to tax evasion. His supporters say that the move was aimed at restraining his work and criticism of the Chinese government. Ai has since employed teams to mount his exhibitions in cities all over the world.
Alcatraz prison, located on an island in the San Francisco Bay, was a U.S. federal prison from 1933 until 1963, when then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered it closed due to expense troubles and structural damage.
The art installation contains multiple sections of work that employ different mediums; in one room, sculptures made from kites are suspended from the ceiling. In another, a row of abandoned cells showing tributes to political dissidents is open for visitors to enter.
One section comprises a sound installation that pays tribute to Hopi elders who were imprisoned in Alcatraz after refusing to send their children to a U.S. Army school; their chants echo throughout a former psychiatric observation cell.
The location created many artistic challenges. The U.S. State Department had to approve the exhibition, since it involved a work by one of China’s most famous political dissidents on federal land.
And it was hard to design the Alcatraz exhibit without being able to see the space himself, Ai Weiwei said.
“For an artist to be unable to see the venue and to be unable to interact with the audience, if I had to imagine the toughest restriction of an exhibition, that would be it,” he said.
Warm up questions
- In what ways can art be political?
- What is a dissident?
- What do you know about China and the Chinese government?
Critical thinking questions
- What are some of the ideas behind Ai Weiwei’s art?
- Ai Weiwei has clashed with the Chinese government over his political opinions. Can you think of any other times, in other countries or in the U.S., when artists have been jailed or punished for their beliefs?
- Ai Weiwei is an artist and an activist, but has drawn criticism from both communities. What qualities and actions make someone an activist or an artist?
- How is art different from a demonstration, an editorial or other forms of political protest?
