Fish Racks

Kings Lynn forge-in and BABA AGM 2009

Nigel Barnett was approached by Sheena Carman, the King’s Lynn Arts Officer, to come up with an idea for a sculptural piece to be displayed on the quayside in celebration of the Hanseatic League of Ports, of which King’s Lynn is one. Negotiations took place with the help of Terry Clark, and it was decided the project could be incorporated in the BABA 2009 AGM. Bethan Griffiths researched the town’s history, and the concept of a fish rack was born, as the quayside had been used for fish drying since the Middle Ages.

These were created at two locations, at a forge-in at Kings Lynn and at the BABA AGM, held at Blists Hill, Ironbridge.

Having decided that invitations to hold forge-ins in King’s Lynn as well as in Ironbridge were both too good to turn down, even though they would be on consecutive weekends, the BABA Council and AGM Organising Committee hit upon the notion of a “two site, one artwork” concept. And it worked marvellously!

King’s Lynn
The first gig in the tour took place right on King’s Lynn dock as part of the town’s Hanse Festival. It was here that work began on a large piece of sculpture that will stand on the dockside to commemorate its links with the historic Hanseatic League of trading ports. Nigel Barnett developed the whole project together with King’s Lynn Borough Council. Bethan Griffiths produced a design that not only fulfilled the resulting brief, but also took account of the fact that it would be produced at a forge-in. The piece takes the form of two large fish drying racks to which are attached by means of hooks some 160 different fish.

At King’s Lynn the focus was on fish forging. To speed things up and to provide a degree of consistency, a ‘bumper catch’ of laser cut fish blanks was available for people to detail, although participants were also welcome to ‘do their own thing’.
In total, about 40 smiths from all over the country took part.
By the end of the weekend, we had a really good number and variety of fish in addition to some more individual contributions such as a rope of mussels and a seagull.

From King’s Lynn, the whole show rolled on to the next venue on the tour, Blist’s Hill Museum. Thanks to Chris Topp, Bethan Griffiths and the rest of the team for organising this event. We set up lots more equipment including power hammers, a gas forge and a bench-mounted drill as well as many more forging stations. We set about making more fish, the many hooks for the fish to hang on and the two racks themselves. These consisted of some pretty heavy stock and so involved lots of upsetting, lots of tenons and lots (and lots!) of drilling.

By Sunday afternoon, both drying racks had been completed and many of the hooks fixed in place. Seeing the racks upright and loaded with the by now huge numbers of fish was really satisfying. It’s definitely one of those pieces where the more you look, the more you see.