BARTER ARCHIVE A community-led project in Billingsgate Fish Market by Pat Wingshan Wong
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CONTENTS 04 Barter Archive Intro 08 Exchanging Memories 13 Constructing the Archive 20 Barter Outlet 26 Barter Auction 34 Seminars & Talks 40 Acknowledgements
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The orginals are given to the fishmongers in exchange for their memorable items.
The carbon copies are kept by Wong.
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THE BARTER ARCHIVE aims to preserve the stories and collective memories of the people working at the Billingsgate Fish Market at Canary Wharf, London. The archive begins as a series of observational drawings which are gradually exchanged for the fishmongers’ stories, memories and personal objects.
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01 Exchanging Memories Barter Archive is a community-led archive constructed by artist Pat Wingshan Wong in collaboration with the fishmongers at the Billingsgate Fish Market at Canary Wharf, London. The archive engages with the idea of barter physically and symbolically. It includes memorable objects ‘bartered’ by the artist using her observational drawings of the happenings in the space, as well as videos that document stories and memories of the people.
It preserves the collective memory of the Billingsgate community and challenges the domination of capitalism, highlighting and questioning the ways value is assigned through culture and society.
Over the past two years, Wong has immersed herself into sketching the Billingsgate Fish Market every morning at five o’clock from Tuesday to Saturday, thus opening up dialogue with the fishmongers. As an early exploration of individual and communal identity, she recorded Opposite and documented the fishmongers’ stories, and Wong showing her drawings witnessed their strong community bonding. to convince a fishmonger to However, the City of London Corporation exchange announced a relocation plan which will move the market to Dagenham, an industrial suburb, in the next five years due to the rapid city development at Canary Wharf. Wong has since sought to construct an archive that involves the fishmongers in order to give visibility, respect and compassion to the invisible or marginalised communities. Wong created highly personal sketches and 3D-scannings stemming from individuals’ lived experiences, providing an innovative perspective to conventional institutionalised archives that prioritise tangible objects over ephemeral stories and effects. She engages with the fishmongers and incorporates their voices into the works based on transparency and mutual trust. In Barter Archive, Wong transforms passive artwork creation into active socially engaged practice, and at the same time probes, the ways in which ‘value’ are defined in our society amid urban development.Through bartering her drawings with the fishmongers’ memories, the artist determines what records have enduring value with the community who may not otherwise engage in archiving, denoting a bottom-up and grassroots method of re-examining history.
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#13 Fishmonger : Jeff Company : Chamberlain & Thelwell Ltd. Date : 30 Nov 2020 “Ask me next time” and “ not now” are the responses I always hear from Jeff. As Jeff’s father used to be a porter, he promised to give me the Bobbin, the porter head. His office has many medals and certificates. One of them was issued by the City of London Corporation to the whole fish market, to thank them for their help in regenerating the Docklands in 1982.
#24 Fishmonger : Laurie Company : C&A Seafood Date : 20 Nov 2020 Laurie is a porter and worked in the Old Billingsgate Fish Market before. He is the first one who trusts me and gives me his porter badge. He told me he used to hang it on the Christmas tree every year.
#39 Fishmonger : Mark Company : SELSEA Date : 15 Jan 2021 Mark loves fashion, he wears a hat covered with poppy pins and several feathers, a baby lobster necklace and colourful socks everyday. When I asked to barter for his hat, he asked me for something more valuable, like a watch, as a guarantee. After I showed him Laurie’s porter badge, he trusted me. He kept saying “If you don't bring it back, I will be very upset”.
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#40 Fishmonger : Michael Company : James Nash & Son Ltd. Date : 16 Jan 2021 Michael is the third generation of Jame Nash and Son. His grandfather started the shop before the Second World War. I like to visit their office after they finish work in the market hall, as they are always very welcome. Micheal gave me a framed photo of his grandad, wearing a suit at a dinner in the Fishmonger’s Hall before the Second World War.
#49 Fishmonger : Chris Company : JOHN STOCKWELL LTD. Date : 15 Jan 2021 Chris is a porter and Martin’s friend. He gave a cool response when I asked him for a photo. After I finished work and left the market, he came toward me again with a hat and asked me to take another photo, posing with his trolley.
#67 Fishmonger : Zahid Company : Polydor Seafood Date : 16 Jan 2021 There are four Polydor Seafood in the fish market. This one mainly sells Lobster. I asked Ikon to write me a price sign to promote the Barter Archive in return for the sketch.
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02 Constructing the Archive Wong used her observational sketches of the Billingsgate Fish Market in exchange for memorable objects of the fishmongers. By using the language of bartering, she opens up a dialogue with the Billingsgate community and investigates the public and personal significance of the space, and how it is affected by the rapid urban development of Southeast London. Once the barter has successfully been conducted, they will have a 15-minute video interview to document stories with photographs and videos. The memorable objects will be returned to the fishmongers after 3D scanning and printing.
Opposite Barter Archive's permanant online archive www.barter-archive.com
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03 Barter Outlet Barter Archive presents Barter Outlet, a pop-up exhibition at Piggy Cafe in the Billingsgate Fish Market, celebrating its community bonding and memories as a collective response to the market relocation in the next five years. The exhibition was an extension of the two-year-long community-led project Barter Archive constructed by the artist Pat Wingshan Wong using her observational drawings in exchange for the memorable objects of the fishmongers. These objects include disappearing porter badges, a rarely-seen shark skeleton, an invaluable lobster necklace, and many more. Bartering activities organically and iteratively took place throughout the exhibition from 26 June to 10 July 2021. It invited the audience to exchange their memories of the market with the sketches on display. At the Open House, it engaged with a wide range of activities designed together by the artist and the fishmongers.
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The pop-up exhibition brings different personalities of the fishmongers into a space, showcasing the multiple voices and diverse cultures within the market. Transforming the working space into an exhibition with performances, the artist sees the performance as part of their lives in the market instead of a tourist checkpoint. It invites the public to contemplate the significance of the space and work together to create narratives at the intersection of events and documents. While restaging the tradition of the market and recalling its collective memory, the exhibition also explores the relationships between the artist and the fishmongers as well as the public.
Fishmonger Tom is checking out his own drawing in the exhibition.
Kicking off the Barter Outlet with Sammy the Seal, the mascot of the Billingsgate Fish Market.
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The bartering activities are moments of collective meaningmaking. Bringing the sketches, activities and histories together, and presenting them to an audience that never encounters them in a public setting, the exhibition makes the cafe a site for open discussions, raising the awareness of the impact of capitalism on society amid rapid urban development. The cafe, as a community hub, is where the artist starts to meet people through her sketches, thus opening up conversation with the fishmongers. The exhibition engages with the fishmongers’ language, for example, barter and banter, and initiates a series of encounters and discussions at the cafe. The exhibition is a collaborative process, which incorporates the fishmongers’ concerns about how collective memory could be transformed and presented to the public, shifting the emphasis from the artist’s work to realising the impact that a community has on the way we live.
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04 Barter Auction Barter Auction is an exploration of power, commerce, and accumulation of capital through a performative auctioning of Billingsgate artworks. The exhibition attempts to utilise the economics of the art world and create artworks that can question capitalist power structures in our society, performing the consumption of memories as a critique of value production and the commodification of memories. Wong will hold an auction performance during the exhibition ‘selling’ her works, encouraging the visitors to reflect on the existing capitalistconsumerist culture and the social impact of gentrification. This ‘auction’ will not be the last, rather marking the beginning of the many auctions in the future as the market continues to be displaced. In reference to urban legend and folklore, Wong has developed eight highly personal sketches and legendary stories of the fishmongers, alongside 3D-printed ceramics of their memorable objects, to be shown in a physical exhibition and live auction performance. Created from bone china extracted from fish bone ash, each work is formed by directly using the 3D-scanned data
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from the fishmongers’ objects. This exhibition will underscore an integral part of Wong’s practice — an ongoing dialogue with marginalised communities and an exploration into constructs of identity all through artistic practice. Since October 2019, every morning before dawn breaks, Wong has immersed herself into sketching in Billingsgate as a way of opening up dialogue with the fishmongers. In early explorations of individual and communal identity in the market, she recorded and documented the fishmongers’ stories, and witnessed their strong community bond. She has since sought to construct an archive called Barter Archive involving the fishmongers in order to give visibility, respect and compassion to the invisible or marginalised communities on the Isle of Dogs.
Lot-01
Slippery Saviour A rare pair of white work boots of Sammy the Seal, Protector of the Billingsgate Fish Market. Featuring slip resistant soles with round toes, Size 42. Signed by the owner. Year: 1962 Size: 350 x 300 x 150 mm Exchange Date: 27Jan2021 Provenance: Bill Thornton, Billingsgate Seafood Training School
Lot-08
The Greedy Butterflyfish A small keyring figuring a butterflyfish accented with brilliant-cut oval sapphires. Signed by the owner. Year: 1991 Size: 65 x 150 x 25 mm Exchange Date: 26Nov2021 Provenance: Muhammad Usman Ashra, Polydor Seafood
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Lobster, Guardian of the Billingsgate Parking Lot
Lot-04
Designed as a smirking lobster mint tin made into a necklace, measuring approximately 405mm, Signed by the owner. Year: 1973 Size: 12 x 85 x 4 mm Exchange Date: 15Jan2021 Provenance: Mark Andrew Wilkinson
The 89th Ocean Football Tournament Trophy, The Sammy Billingsgate Gold Cup
Lot-07
Trophy showing the Billingsgate flame with an enamelled image depicting the finalists of the match featured in the centre. “BILLINGSGATE 5’S WINNERS 1987” is engraved on the Year: 1987 Size: 150 x 70 x 70 mm Exchange Date: 7Nov2020 Provenance: Chris Jacobs, John Stockwell Ltd.
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Barter Auction is happening on the Roof Garden of Canary Wharf.
Lobster, Guardian of the Billingsgate Parking Lot.
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Preparing the lots of the Barter Auction.
The exhibition is on! Mr. Nick White is making his bids.
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05 Seminars and Talks Until now, Barter Archive constructed a permanent online archive, 2 physical exhibitions, and 5 guest seminars, in which speakers are from institutions or academia, including Tate Archivists, University College London, AiR, and the Whitechapel Gallery. The project was also invited by the Kingston University, Brighton University, Royal College of Art for guest talks. In 2021, Pat was invited and partershiped with Museum of London to exhibited and conducted a talk in the Being Human Festival: The Food and Idea Exchange. In 2022, the Barter Archive was collected by the Museum of London, where Wong was trained as an archivist-researcher for the project’s ongoing development.
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Being Human Festival:
Barter Roadshow
The Food and Idea Exchange
Presenter & Guests: Richard Martin,
Organisers: Museum of London
Jessie Brennan, Michael Eglin
Date : 17 Nov 2021
Date : 26 Jun 2021
To celebrate the community bonding and reflect the unique identity of the Billingsgate Fish Market, artist Pat Wingshan Wong collaborates with the fishmongers to create an archive that includes memorable objects (e.g. disappearing porter badges, a rarely-seen shark skeleton, an invaluable lobster necklace, etc.) that were ‘bartered’ by her observational drawings. She will exhibit and present her barter process during the event.
Richard Martin, Daskalopoulos Director of Education & Public Programmes at Whitechapel Gallery and Jessie Brennan, Visiting Tutor at Royal College of Art and Pat Wingshan Wong, the artist (the guv' nor of Barter Outlet) come togather to bring different perspectives and voices towards this community-led project.
Open The Boxes
Invisible Borders Exchange Programme
Organisers: Tate Archivists & RCA
Organiser: Academy of Fine Arts,
Guest: Peter Eaves & Clare Sexton
Nuremberg & RCA
Date : 29 Jan 2021
Invsible Borders is a collaboration bewteen the Royal College of Art Walkative Society and students from the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts under Susanne Kohler. As co-director of the Walkative Society, Pat worked with Susanne, to organise and take part in an digital exchange which took place over the winter of 2020/2021. Pat brought in the Barter Archive project in to the programme and exhibiting the research process in Akademiegalerie Nürnberg and Kurt Kurt Gallery, Berlin.
One after another, the 6-participant will open their respective boxes and share with the group their content and meaning. However, the process is meant to be fluid, responsive – we can embrace a sparkle of chaos. If a theme, question, format, approach seems to connect with your own process, you are invited to jump in, break the rhythm, share one of your items even if your box is closed. You are allowed to exchange items with the other participants, to engage with their personal approach.
Social Engagement Practice: Barter
Walk-en-gage: Barter Archive
Archive
Organiser: RCA
Organiser: University of Brighton
Guest: Tamara Stoll
Facilitator: Roderick Mills
Date : 23 Feb 2021
Date : 25 Nov 2021
It is a two-day workshop exploring two different markets in London including a workshop from guest artist Tamara Stoll who is currently a tutor at the London College of Communication. Participants will experience how walking can be used as a research method, as an investigation of a place and how we can use this method to articulate our voices in response to the issues we discover. The workshops will be a mixture of talks, practical exercises and discussion, including the use of breakout rooms to allow smaller group discussions.
A guest talk about the soical engagement practice of the Barter Archive project for whole year BA Visual Communication studnets in School of Art & Media, University of Brighton.
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Acknowledgements Foremost thanks to the Billingsgate Fish Market community for their generous hospitality and boundless trust in this project. Also thanks to the following presses who have covered the project: Illustrator Pat Wingshan Wong on creating a collaborative archive with the fishmongers of Billingsgate Market, It's Nice That, Sept 2021 Journal of a bartering artist, the world of interiors, Condé Nast, Sep 2021 Sketches traded for stories at Billingsgate fish market – in pictures, Guardian, the Observer, Jul 2021 Drawing the stories of Billingsgate Fish Market, Royal College of Art News, Jun 2021 The Stories Of Billingsgate Fishmongers: Preserved In A New Community Archive, Londonist, Jun 2021 Feature story, 90s illustrator Flyingpig, Apple Daily, Jun 2021 Fill In #6: Sandtable, HKdhnet, May 2021 Adopter Stories: Barter Archive – An archive of the people, by the people, for the people, Artdomians, Mar 2021 Barter Archive: Portraits of the Billingsgate, Content Free, Mar 2021 ‘I thought about Bruce Lee’: how Hong Kong artists in Britain struggled to feel from afar the pulse of their home city, and to represent it, South China Morning Post, Mar 2021 Flyingpig, a Hong Kong illustrator, Wertn Magazine, Nov 2020
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Project Director, Curator, Artist: Pat Wingshan Wong Co-Writer & Content editor: Vivien Chan Website Design: Max Kohler 3D scan: Hannah Terry Documentation Photographer: Jimmi Ho Creative Technologist: Kachi Chan Co-Writer & PR: Wan Yi Sandra Lam Barter Outlet Exhibition Identity Design: Europa Photographer: Jimmi Ho Contributors: Chanfly, Anya Landolt, Sophie Châtellier Barter Auction Exhibition Identity Design: William Jacobson Interior Design: Dennis Lam & Joyce Kwok@ JMKD studio Photographer: Max Leighton Exhibition Setup: Arthur Wilson Production: Théo Welch-King 3D print studio: Kwambio Auctioneer( actor): Crispin Holland Performers: Konstantina Benaki Chatzispasou, Myrna Marianovits, Nick White, Lucie Levrangi, Alastair Kwan, HeiYiu Ng, Claudia Contributors: Ellen Wong, Lai Ho, Carmen Yiu, Suthata Suthmahatayangkun The project is supported using public funding by Art Council England, supported by Tower Hamlets Council Arts, Parks and Events Team and funded by Varley Memorial Award 2020.
