For several weeks this fall The Fabulous Fifth Wheel was parked in a cliffside RV park overlooking the Pacific ocean, just outside San Francisco. And despite having visited the city at least a dozen times before, it wasn’t until this trip that I ticked the last of the iconic San Francisco experiences off my bucket list: Alcatraz.

I’m glad I waited. Because, as it turned out, my long delayed visit coincided with the current exhibit of site-specific works by the Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei.  Titled @Large, the works explore to stories of those incarcerated in one form or another for their beliefs.

In one huge warehouse space the portraits of 176 people have been assembled out of Legos. Yes Legos. Over a million of them.

The National Park Service is one of the sponsors of the exhibit. I can only imagine there was hand wringing in park management meetings when, as one section of Legos was pieced to together by volunteers following Weiwei’s blueprint, the image of Edward Snowden appeared.

Freedom Fighter? Traitor? Can he be both? In any event, his story and those of the 175 others with pixilated portraits here are particularly thought provoking in this setting.

Elsewhere on the island, in one of the cellblocks, there’s a sound installation.  Words and music from incarcerated activists fill each cell from hidden speakers. Including the music of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. And for the first time I  read a translation of the song that got them sent to prison after it was performed in a cathedral in Moscow to protest the Orthodox church’s support of Putin.

“Virgin Mother of God, put Putin away

Put Putin away, put Putin away!

Black robe, golden epaulettes

All parishioners crawl to bow

The phantom of liberty is in heaven

Gay pride sent to Siberia in chains.”

 

The exhibit is up through April of 2015. See it if you can.