Widely hailed as one of the most significant art exhibitions of the year, @Large has been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. This extraordinary $3.6m project on Alcatraz Island was originally proposed to Ai by Cheryl Haines, executive director of the FOR-SITE Foundation and curator of the exhibition.
"Ai's work both awes us with its grace and beauty and challenges and critiques our way of thinking -in a manner that we hope will catalyze public dialogue on many human rights issues," says Haines.
The inspiration for the exhibition is rooted in the reality of Ai Weiwei's life. Forbidden by authorities to travel outside of China, the artist created the works for the installation in his Beijing Studio. "The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned," says Ai Weiwei. "This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill."
Singled out by Los Angeles Times writer Carolina A. Miranda as "one of my favourite pieces in the exhibition for its subtlety", Stay Tuned is an intimate and evocative sound installation occupying 12 barren and deteriorating prison cells in Alcatraz's A Block. The installation features different music or spoken recitations in each cell created by people who have been imprisoned for the creative expression of their beliefs, as well as works created under incarceration. Artists range from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Russian rock group Pussy Riot and the South African anti-apartheid activists The Robben Island Singers.
Driving Stay Tuned are 12 compact yet powerful MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers with IntelligentDC technology. As Ai insisted the loudspeakers be invisible, they are mounted behind a rusting ventilation grate. Two MM-10ACX subwoofers support music by Iranian Arya Aramnejad and Nigerian Fela Kuti. Sound design for Stay Tuned was handled by San Francisco-based Moment Audio Group, a spinoff of Earwax Productions, where sound artists and engineers Jim McKee and Jeremiah Moore worked jointly with producer Starr Sutherland.
"The quality and invisibility of the loudspeakers contribute to the work's startlingly evocative effect," notes Moore. "It's only one person at a time in the cell, and the clarity of sound leads to a startling directness and intimacy."
The MM-4XP loudspeakers also helped Moore deal with the limitations of the site. "We needed a loudspeaker with very low distortion, high power, and proven reliability, and the MM-4XP was ideal on all counts," he says. "In addition, Meyer Sound's exclusive IntelligentDC technology enabled us to run DC power for the amplifiers and the audio signal over a single cable from our equipment room 120 feet away. We didn't have to sacrifice power and clarity because of long speaker cables."
Source recordings for Stay Tuned are played on an Apple Mac mini running QLab software. Output to two MPS-488HP IntelligentDC power supplies is via an RME Fireface 400 interface augmented by an Aphex Model 141 ADAT to Analog converter.
One of the most prominent cultural figures of the 21st century, Ai Weiwei is a Beijing-based artist and activist known for his work in sculpture, installations, film, architecture, and photography. His work often responds to conditions in China, including limits placed on free speech and expression and his personal experience of incarceration.
(Jim Evans)
