Projects of collective >

Busy Hands (2019)

Busy Hands is an ongoing artistic research project that examines an international exchange education program between Hong Kong and the Philippines during the 60s. The program aimed to gather leaders from labour and trade unions from Asian countries, it served as a platform for labour education, sharing information and knowledge production. The project explores the dynamics of Hong Kong’s participation in the program, which catalyzed or supplied momentum for the subsequent social movement in the colony, the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist Riots.

The phrase “Busy Hands” was found on the education program pamphlet published by The Asian Labor Education Center (ALEC), University of the Philippines (UP). In order to promote the program officially, copies of the pamphlet were sent to selected Asian countries (one copy is currently in holdings at Hong Kong Public Records Office). Hong Kong had been invited since the 1st session and later joined the 4th session in 1961. “Busy Hands” refers to the phenomenon of overworked labour
due to underdeveloped labour welfare, unionism and affiliated law; on the other hand, the project title metaphorizes various visible and invisible intervention that preached ideologies and initiated social movement during the tumultuous times.

The exhibition features an early stage of the research-in-progress.

Publication

Publication: “Busy Hands”
Busy Hands (2019)