Small Wrists

Small Wrists presents an iteration of an ongoing collaborative research into the contemporary currency of 'social banditry', a termed coined by the British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. Taking a script of an obscure Taiwanese high school play titled Liu Thiam-Ting as a point of departure, the project instigates a series of readings, respectively at Lydgalleriet and Søreide Skole in attempting to generate a network of knowledge and narratives.

The social bandit is a type of criminal that exists and operates on the margins and illegality of society. Social bandits challenge the established socio-economic hierarchy and, redistribution of material property such as wealth and immaterial property such as knowledge. Hobsbawm's analysis identifies the social bandit as one who belongs to a pre-modern society and includes historical figures like Jack Sheppard, Liau Thiam-Ting and Forty Elephants, and contemporary candidates within the frame of the global information-economy like Edward Snowden.

Within a wider context the social bandit exists as a ghost-like presence kept alive and constantly mutated in a movement of transgression of narratives, word of mouth, rumour, fantasy and truth. Through a series of open meetings in collaboration with Nora Adwan, Hild Borchgrevink, Alicia Cohen and Anders Gullestad, Small Wrists explores this process of transmission and possibly the hidden, invisible and low frequency voices around it as well as the space where the voices find resonance.

In generating material for the exhibition, two workshops are organised at Lydgalleriet January 27th- 29th, each day between 10-13.

*The project title Small Wrists alludes to the Norwegian outlaw Gjest Baardsen (1791-1849) who was famous for his jailbreaks due to his small wrists.

‍Small Wrists is conceived by Hong-Kai Wang and Rune Søchting, and is the fourth instalment of LYDHØRT.