"These are nonviolent people who have lost their freedom simply because they expressed their ideas...In truth, they are heroes of our time."

      -Ai Weiwei

Trace, an exhibit from @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, presents portraits of political dissidents confined within the prison walls.  Ai Weiwei's choice of medium, Lego blocks, emphasizes his belief that a message is spread through the work of individuals acting as a collective.  The 175+ portraits displayed on the floor of the jailhouse include famous prisoners such as Nelson Mandela, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden, as well as those not as well known, such as China's Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize after he was jailed for speaking up for the rights of the Tiananmen Square protesters as well as against the single-party communist rule.  In many ways, Ai Weiwei himself fits the profile of those he captured in his Lego portraits: famously outspoken, controversial, and at times rebellious against his government.