Barter Archive Intro

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 and documented the fishmongers’ stories, and witnessed their strong community bonding. However, the City of London Corporation 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.

Opposite Wong showing her drawings to convince a fishmonger to exchange

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.

“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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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