Blossom : @Large

Ai Weiwei chose the clinic of Alcatraz as the setting for the site-specific installation Blossom. In this piece he filled the original porcelain fixtures, the bathtubs, sinks and toilets with masses of porcelain flowers. Looking like frothy bubbles from a distance, a closer inspection reveals this hopeful flowering.  It’s a stunning, subtle work, such a contrast between the dirty and sickly connotations of the clinic’s bathrooms and the flourishing purity of the flowers,  I find it profound that the same material, porcelain could convey both of these extremes.

Clinic -Alcatraz              Clinic at Alcatraz            Bath Tub - Clinic - Alcatraz

 

 Bath Cell - Alcatraz            Ai Wei Wei - Blossom - Alcatraz          Ai Wei Wei - Blossom - Alcatraz

 

Ai Wei Wei - Blossom - Alcatraz

 

Ai Wei Wei - Blossom - Alcatraz

 

Ai Wei Wei - Blossom Bath - Alcatraz

 

Ai Wei Wei - Blossom - Alcatraz

 

Blossom (detail)

With Wind : @Large

I finally made it to the groundbreaking exhibition, @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz just before it ended! This island penitentiary (having imprisoned civil war political prisoners, conscientious objectors in WWI, and being occupied by Native American protestors) was the perfect site to work with themes of personal freedom, freedom of expression and concerns with political oppression.

Alcatraz April 21, 2015

 

When San Francisco’s For-Site Executive Director, Cheryl Haines  (and @Large Curator) had approached internationally acclaimed artist, Ai WeiWei in his confinement in China with the idea of exhibiting at Alcatraz, it was a perfect fit. Ai Weiwei was able to work remotely from his studio in Beijing developing and directing this site-specific installation.

Visiting @Large

 

With Wind was an installation of handmade painted kites made of paper, silk and bamboo that wound its way through one of the main factory floors of the New Industries Building on Alcatraz in which inmates used to work in laundry or manufacturing. The kites, a symbol of soaring freedom, delicate and fragile (like us) are able to reach great heights with wind, the wind being a metaphor for our voices. Interestingly, the word akasha in Sanskrit, which means open space and sky, is also associated with wind and voice. These kites, especially the dragon, seemed barely contained in this space and there was a sense of optimism implicit in their bright colors and imagery of massing birds. The dragon’s head was oriented to an open door, primed for escape and emblazoned with Ai Weiwei’s name in it’s brows and Twitter icons on it’s eyes. Throughout the length of the dragon there were quotes from prisoners of conscience.

Mouth of the dragon.

 

Twitter Icon pupils and flaming Ai weiwei brows featured on the Dragon’s Head.

Dragon head

 

Dragon head (side view)

 

Entrance

 

The dragon positioned to fly out the open door.

Winding overhead

 

 My words are innocent and well intended

 

“My words are well intended and innocent.” – Lê Quôc Quân

Out Disgusting Dictator

 

“Ze Du Out Disgusting Dictator.” –  Nito Alves

Privacy…is a function of Liberty

 

“…privacy is a function of liberty.” – Edward Snowden

 Potential Convict

 

“Everyone of us is a potential Convict: – Ai Weiwei

Hand made kites - bird

 

 

Traditional hand made kites are still being crafted in Beijing. I was luck enough to visit one such shop, Three Stones Kite Store, in 2008 and took home a silk swallow, which represents the city.  Here Ai Weiwie has had his birds painted with his own imagery.

Wing detail

 

Birds taking wing, flocking together, flowers blossoming.

Hand made kites - star and cranes

 

Hand made kites - double bird

 

Hand made kites - double bird detail

 

There is a Chinese legend that goes back to 559 AD when two brothers flew from a dungeon by sitting on a kite one of them had made to rescue his brother. I wonder if this two headed bird is associated with that story?

Hand made kites - double birds

 

 Hand made kites as seen through gun gallery.

 

Kites seen through the gun gallery.

Head of dragon kite as seen through gun gallery.

 

Last glimpse of the dragon kite though the gun gallery where most of the glass was either broken or missing.