This book documents The Waiting List project which was an innovative work of art/activism which transformed data from a nationwide survey on
allotment waiting lists in the UK, revealing a figure of 170,000 waiting – into a huge allotment-sized artwork made of seed paper. The project was
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.
A special belly band wrap made ofseed paper is used on the book and 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 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 l designed by Julia Utreras, 4-colour litho printed on munken paper with a section sewn binding at Hollywell Press,
Oxford and in an edition of 350.