The book documents the project produced by Dr JC Niala, Julia Utreras and Sam Skinner, working in collaboration with Greenpeace UK, and explores urgent issues concerning access to allotments, land justice and food sovereignty.
The publication includes: new poems by JC Niala; unseen data and documentation; creative reflections on the project by Hannah Davey, Harun Morrison, Mary Jane Edwards, Kaylene Alder; photos by Elizabeth Dalziel; and illustrations by Jordan Hau.
The original Waiting Project list project was an innovative work of art/activism which transformed data from a nationwide survey on the number of people on allotment waiting lists in the UK – over 170,000 – into a huge allotment-sized artwork made of seed paper. The artwork was first presented at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in London in 2023, as a collective demand for more allotments. Enacting en-masse a right enshrined in the 1908 Allotment Act that if 6 or more people from different council tax paying households demand an allotment the local government is duty bound to act.
The artwork then travelled to Liverpool where it was ‘dug-in’ to land owned by supermarket giant Tesco. An area the size of a standard ‘10 pole’ allotment plot was strimmed, hoed, and then laid with the seed paper sewn with blocks of Clover, Fescue, Mustard, and Sunflower, to support phytoremediation of the land and act as green manure, before being covered in 4 tonnes of compost. The project received nationwide attention and was featured in national newspapers, on radio, TV, and online.
The publication explores the impact and legacy of the project from a multitude of creative perspectives offering readers a unique document of, and insight into, the project. The book was designed by Julia Utreras and includes a seed paper ‘belly-band’ around the cover made by Sam Skinner.
Edition of 350 // 102 pages // Litho printed on Munken paper at Hollywell Press, Oxford // Soft cover and section sewn binding // £10
Available to purchase online from Antenne Books from Jan 9th HERE.
