Trace (2014):
- @Large - title ironic as Ai is considered the most prominent and simultaneously dubious Contemporary Chinese artists and though he continues to produce a prolific line of works, his passport has been revoked and he is metaphorically ‘imprisoned’ by the country he is expected to call ‘home’.
- Renowned for work that defies the distinction between art and activism
- Exhibition à responds to island’s layered legacy as 19th-century military fortress, notorious federal penitentiary, site of Native American heritage
- Site is now one of America’s most visited national parks
- Revealed new perspectives on Alcatraz, raised questions about freedom of expression and human rights à resonated beyond this particular place.
- Gives human face (or faces) to the global reality of political detainment
- 176 portraits (global) of those imprisoned or exiled due to beliefs/affiliations
- Most still incarcerated at time artwork was made (“heroes of our time”).
- Number of portraits is overwhelming, impression compounded by intricacy of the construction (handcrafted from LEGO) à studio made and fabricated by more than 80 volunteers in San Francisco.
- Viewer à field of colour images, flat viewing plane, multitude of small parts, complex whole à relationship between individual and collective; central dynamic in any society but particularly charged in contemporary China.
- “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