.jpg)
Barter Archive
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 documents 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.
In 2020-2021, 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.
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 affects. 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’ is 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.
This project is supported by Arts Council England, the Canary Wharf Group and Tower Hamlets Council.
To explore the memorable objects of the fishmongers and their stories, please visit our online archive www.barter-archive.com & follow Instagram @Barter_Archive
.png)
%20.png)
The artist used her observational sketches of the Billingsgate Fish Market in exchange for memorable objects of the fishmongers.
Once the barter has successfully been conducted, the artist will have a 15-minute interview with the fishmongers to document their stories with photographs and videos.
Barter Outlet
Piggy’s Cafe, Billingsgate Fish Market, London, E14 5ST
Outlet Open House: 26 June 2021, 6:30 - 9 AM
Barter Roadshow: 26 June 2021, 10:30 AM -12 PM
Outlet Trading Hours: 26 June - 10 July 2021, 7 - 10 AM
A pop-up exhibition at the newly opened 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 is 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.
The exhibition will feature 70 observational sketches of the fish market created by the artist. Bartering activities will organically and iteratively take place throughout the exhibition from 26 June to 10 July 2021. It invites the audience to exchange their memories of the market with the sketches on display. At the Open House, it will engage with a wide range of activities designed together by the artist and the fishmongers. The public activities include the Oyster Olympics, short films and live performances by the fishmongers, and a surprise guest appearance of Sammy the Seal.
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.
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.
The bartering activities are moments of collective meaning-making. 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.
Read more: https://issuu.com/barter-auction/docs/catalogue_16
Barter Auction
Crossrail Place Roof Garden, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AB
Opening Reception & Auction Performance: 6 November 2021, 5 PM
Viewing Exhibition: 6 - 28 November 2021, 12 - 6 PM
A solo exhibition of the sole trader Pat Wingshan Wong in collaboration with the fishmongers at the Billingsgate Fish Market. It brings the marginalised voices and stories of the fishmongers to centre stage as a collective response to the market’s second relocation by 2027. It is the second iteration of the Barter Archive, a series of works centred on the experiences of the market and Wong’s growing relationship to the Billingsgate fishmonger community.
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 capitalist-consumerist 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 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.
The archive engages with the economic language of bartering, both physically and symbolically. It includes memorable objects ‘bartered’ by the artist, exchanged for her observational drawings of the happenings in the space, as well as videos documenting stories and memories of the Billingsgate community. The archive is a repository for the collective memory of the market and challenges the ways in which ‘value’ is assigned in our society amid urban development. Barter Auction follows Barter Outlet, a pop-up exhibition in Billingsgate Fish Market celebrating its community bonding earlier in June 2021.
Read more: https://issuu.com/barter-auction/docs/barter_auction_catalogue
