Framedlight

A chance exhibition by Ai Weiwei the dissident Chinese artist lead to us being able to visit the sad hospital wing of Alcatraz, which I understand is not normally open to the public. Ai Weiwei had a blog which criticised the Chinese government for trying to cover up the cause of the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 when nearly 5,500 students perished. Not only did the government suppress the reason for this tragedy, shoddy building methods, it would not disclose the names of the children who had died. Ai Weiwei investigated and published the names so that they would not be forgotten. The blog was closed down by the government and Ai Weiwei was placed under house arrest and in 2011 imprisoned for alleged tax offences. Ai Weiwei had spent the 1980's in the US while studying and working in New York, returning to China when his father became ill. He had participated in courses at the Parson's School of Design and the Art Student's League of N...

A lady ranger (Alcatraz is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area) was waiting on the dock for us to arrive. When we had all gathered round she explained a little of the history of Alcatraz and told us to walk up the hill to the cellhouse where we would receive our tour audio packs and headphones. The building behind her is the barracks of the old fort. Alcatraz was used as a defense for San Francisco, a fort being built here in 1850 when the city had reached a population of 20,000. During the civil war the city was a Union stronghold and a prime target for Confederate raiders.  The use of Alcatraz as a prison dates back to this time, when soldiers convicted of crimes like desertion, assault and worse were kept here along with captured native Indians and convicts from the Spanish American War of 1898.  We walked up the hill passing part of the understorey of the old fort and the obligatory stars and stripes (always looks good against a blue sky). ...