Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Alcatraz and Ai Weiwei

In the middle of San Francisco Bay lies Alcatraz, home to many of the cruelest killers and thugs in the earlier part of 1900's. It sits high on platforms of rock, and although stunning views, it is not the kind of place you'd like to be jammed into if you were a prisoner.

In today's world it has been part of the National Parks system and a hugely successful tourist destination for so many San Francisco visitors.

Life there inside the cells was of course prison....and the ones that escaped (3 successfully) were genius in their forethought to scoop out by spoon a tunnel and escape through the pipes.


Small, cramped, dark, damp...it's an odd and torturous existence....but them's the consequences and society's payback plan.



So what could be a better setting for an art show presented by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei....a man jailed for his beliefs and considered dangerous by the Chinese government.

Kites and dragons fly overhead amidst the rubble that was once a sewing area for the prisoners.