A documentary about the making of the Chinese artist’s @Large, a 2014 project set in the former penitentiary, reveals his family’s own tragedy
In 2014, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei still had his passport withheld by the
Beijing authorities, denying him foreign travel. While he was pondering a new exhibit about political prisoners, Ai was contacted by the San Francisco gallerist and curator Cheryl Haines with a proposal: she had the connections to provide him with a sensational site for the event – Alcatraz
prison, the former US federal penitentiary, closed since 1963 and now a tourist destination.
They agreed that this would be a dramatic showcase, and would relate to Alcatraz’s shabby 19th-century record of imprisoning Hopi Native Americans who refused to be “Americanised” in their education, and also honour the Native
American protest-occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. Haines has now directed a very absorbing and valuable documentary about the creation of this artwork, which relates to Ai’s honourable record of using art as memorialist-activism.