I’ve been inside various prisons.
Not for crime and punishment, but the core of my ministry has been in prisons, juvenile and adult. I go there to give hope, to listen, to encourage, to visit, to tour, to pray, to entertain, to rescue, and, recently, to experience the heart and soul of a great artist’s work spread around the icon of Alcatraz.
Alcatraz. The Slammer. The Rock that sits in the middle of active San Francisco Bay with the orange bridge (Golden Gate Bridge) and the Bay Bridge and constant traffic congestion. The maximum security Island was once residence of killers, gangsters, kidnappers, the worst of the worst, those prisoners who failed to follow rules elsewhere. Here on twenty-two acres of sandstone and no fresh water, they would meet their maker, more than likely, in a regimen that crushed and shackled their rebellious ways. The cold concrete structures have been empty of convicts since March, 1963. although Native Americans occupied the island 1969-1971 in protest of their rights to land. Actually, nineteen members of the Hopi Tribe from Arizona were imprisoned on Alcatraz at one point for refusing the forced education of their children and land allotment programs of the US government which violated tribal traditions.
Today, Alcatraz, still holds secrets and legends and intrigue and ghosts of the worst of America’s criminals – Birdman was not a gentle guy who loved birds – he was not Burt Lancaster but was the cruelest of Alcatraz’s inhabitants and continually confined to the mental hospital, I learned. If you could experience the mental hospital, you would know a patient had to be mean and cruel, even deadly, to survive in it. The place still reeks of mold and echo and screams and memories of our own conscientious objectors – more than thirty – during the World Wars. The old prison has, however, become the destination of thousands of curious tourists who travel to San Francisco just to take the ferry across the bay to step on the concrete steps of Alcatraz. And now, what an appropriate place for an installation by the controversial Chinese protagonist, champion of rights, advocate for freedom of speech and life, a superstar who uses the medium of art to speak his words of truth and protest. Ai WeiWei chose this park to get his message to the people, while he himself remains confined for political purposes to his studio/home in Beijing, China. His passport has been revoked, his life one of constant vigilance through snoopy cameras and listening devices, his freedom to speak and communicate with the rest of the world completely cut off. No google, no facebook, no twitter, no gmail, even other systems aimed to get around the Chinese restraint the Chinese authority has closed down. In fact, in 2011 the his government detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days because of his fight against human rights abuses, which included him being beaten by policemen and locked in prison so that he disappeared for many months. He continues to haunt the government for their lack of concern of the many children who died in the earthquake in Sichuan, which eliminated more than 70,000 innocents and too many school children who died because the poorly constructed walls of their school crashed in on them. Ai Weiwei began compiling names and biographies of the 5,192 children and confronted the Chengdu police about them. He continues to remember them on their birthdays through twitter, when he is allowed to use it. Others often do it for him.
The first exhibit as we entered the Laundry space, was an endless dragon made of brightly colored paper circles, some with messages, all hanging from the ceiling out of reach, twisting and turning so it all could be strung up in the space. Other kites like cat creatures fell from pipes in the ceilings. It is called With Wind and each kite in its ancient traditional form was handmade by contemporary Chinese artisans. Chinese dragon kites have mysterious symbols of power. These cause the viewer to gasp at its beauty and detail. Quotes by Nelson Mandela, Edward Snowed and the artist pull you from the gaping fire blowing dragon’s head to the end and turns an ugly prison space into a bird and flower sanctuary.
Ai Weiwei’s struggles to stir the truth above the whey of Chinese politics. It has become his vocation, his passion, his religion. He struggles for justice not just in China but in all countries where people who speak out truths have been locked up, killed or disappeared. This is the essence of “Trace”, his enormous Lego rug of portraits of 170 people from around the world who have been imprisoned or exiled for speaking the truth, defending their beliefs. Countries with the most representatives were Bahrain, 15, Vietnam, 16, Bahrain 26, China 38, which includes Tibet. I could not stop looking at each face, reading the statements about each one in one of the five books on stands with the history and reason for each one. All but a couple, remain confined in prisons, some for life. Most were Muslims, many Tibetans and I was impressed with the amount of Nobel Peace Prize winners. There were 17 women out of the 170, who I list here so you will know their names and pray for their freedom. Google them to know more. I noticed no female from China was represented.
Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, who has received ample publicity for her protests;
Reeyot Alemu of Ethiopia, sentenced under Anti-Terrorism Proclamation
Irom Sharmila Chanu of India, hunger strike for killing of ten civilians arrested.
Shiva Nazar Ahari of Iran, for waging war against God and fight against human rights violations
Bahareh Hedayat of Iran (who insulted the Supreme Leader), women’s rights
Faran Hesami, Iran, disturbing national security and illegal counselor,
Fariba Kamalabadi, Iran, espionage for Israel,
Mahvash Sabet, Iran, espionage for Israel
Roza Tuletaeva of Kazakhstan, organized worker’s strike vs oil company;
Oh Hae-won Suk-ja North Korea (because family failed to return from S Korea)
Oh Kyu-won Suk-ja of North Korea (because family didn’t return from S Korea)
Shin Suk-ja North Korea, mother of the above;
Agnes Uwimana Nkusi , Rwanda (now free)
Meriam Ibrahim, Sudan, born a Muslim, raised Orthodox Christian, married Christian which ranks as Adultery
Tal al Mallohi of Syria, arrested at 18, youngest political prisoner in the world
Do Thi Minh Hanh – Vietnam, disrupting national security
Ho Thi Bich Khuong of Vietnam, longtime social justice advocate,
Ta Phong Tan, Vietnam, former policewoman, arrested for her blog
It’s hard to grasp that these portraits are constructed with the very building blocks which my seven year old grandson is addicted to and has collected probably every Lego set that has been issued in the past three years. Legos are the American obsession of the moment. Weiwei has transformed the simple Lego into a powerful statement spread on the floor like giant carpets in the most atrocious penitentiary in history. Oddly, as I tried to photograph each one with my tiny Nikon, the portraits when viewed by eye were almost abstract and blurred, but snapped as an image in my camera roll, it became a beautiful, clear photograph of a protestor, currently, mostly, behind prison bars somewhere in the world. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. were memorialized in the spread, and but I was disappointed that very few freedom fighters in South America had been included, like Castro, Chavez, even Mujica from Uruguay, and many who have suffered in prison, in politics or have disappeared. The six year old child, Nyima, named the 11th Panchen Lama by the 14th Dalai Lama who was exiled to Dharmsala, India by the Chinese, is included: he has disappeared and the Chinese government named their own selection for this holy position.
When I stepped my foot on this famous island, I took a deep breath. The place was still peeling paint and cracked concrete, with dirty windows and the ambiance of what you think a terrible prison would be. And yet, on a perfect spring day, bright flowers were blooming as if it was their last breath. It lightened up the seriousness of where we were and I wondered if flowers had been allowed to thrive there when it incarcerated men. There were little trams to take tired and weary tourist to the end of the island for the “Trace” exhibit in the old laundry area. Or climbing steps was an option to get to the main prison hall (A Block) where the cells were open and, if you wished, you could sit on a metal stool facing the wall to experience what life was like. Here was Ai Weiwei’s installation “Stay Tuned” where an evocative sound ran through a dozen cell blocks that when realized was poetry, music, words from the mouths of people who had been detained for the creative expression of their beliefs, such as Tibetan singer Lolo, to the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot, to the Robben Island Singers, who were imprisoned during South Africa’s apartheid era.
In the Dining Hall, visitors were encouraged to sit down and write postcards (already addressed) to prisoners still incarcerated in various countries. The cards are pictures of birds and plants and they are picked up and mailed periodically. It is a way to let the political prisoners know they and their cause has not been forgotten, and gives the tourist a chance to encourage freely someone who is confined somewhere in an unfair manner.
In the mental hospital, where windows are bevelled so that looking through them to the outside was distorted and weird, I shivered and imagined how horrible it must have been to live in it, someone who was already suffering from derangement, mental problems and confinement. In the sinks, toilets and bathtubs, utilitarian fixtures, now useless, Ai Weiwei had stuffed fragile, beautiful, exquisite porcelain flowers. Each held hundreds of flowers in tubs and toilets, offering maybe some relief to someone in a hospital. The work was titled “Blossom” for the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief few months when the Chinese government allowed free expression – until it got away from them, and they clamp down on such freedom to dissent. The porcelain flowers are so fragile and yet fill up all the spaces in each hole in the toilet, in the sink, and in the tub.
Totally exhausted after the climbing and pondering the pain and stress of prison memory, we passed through the gift shop which was huge. Catalogues, histories of Alcatraz, clothing. jewelry, just about anything that really had nothing to do with prison life, was sold with the name Alcatraz on it. Sort of ironic. So we loaded up and got in line for the next ferry to take us back to “safety” and the freedom to think about what we had seen, what we wanted to do about it, and how in the world can we get Ai Weiwei free to be the great man, artist, father, and advocate that he is.