HANSEL & GRETEL- AI WEIWEI, JACQUES HERZOG Emersion Installation at the Armory

HANSEL & GRETEL is a cultural/social collaboration between artist/social activists Ai Weiwei, and Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architects Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron.  The installation is at the Armory on Park Ave.  At the entrance you're instructed to follow the yellow tape on the wall; following the yellow brick road to Oz.  The ominous entry has a sense of foreboding.  A guide informs you of the slant in the floors towards the exit, illuminated by a blue light.  The inside is one cavernous dark space.  The title Hansel & Gretel brings its own connotations of the harrowing fairy tale of 2 children able to escape the wicked witch by retracing their trail of breadcrumbs through the forest.  To the right is an ephemeral webbing that is merely an illusion. Walking through the pitch-black space you realize your footsteps are leaving white imprints on the black floor.  Overhead you hear & see aerial drones continuously hovering.  White blurred self-images appear/disappear in your surroundings.  Random lit floor spaces flash on/off & you can perceive red squares that hone in and graph areas of trafficked space.  I felt sensations of intimidation, surveillance and still found it playful & imaginative.  The staging is in 2 parts.  After leaving the dark warehouse you walk around to the front entrance for the "2nd" part.  There you are asked to stand & pose for a camera.  (I refused - because I didn't want to & you can't make me.)  Of course the facial imagery of those who posed appears on large screens, identifiable yet somewhat vague.  There are iPads that provide further information on data collection & how it's utilized.   The overall experience is mildly intriguing but disappointing being a collaboration of 3 artistic geniuses & political activists: Weiwei, Herzog & De Meuron.  The messaging is obvious and its impact futile.  We are living in an age of constant surveillance which has become a necessary evil for the better good.  Drone warfare is another issue with its own gravitas the general populous feels powerless in preventing.  However, this installation ticketed at $17.50 felt jejune or more like an advanced high school project.