A revolutionary digital art experience

Our grassroots community campaign has collaborated with one of Britain’s leading artists to create a revolutionary digital art experience. This groundbreaking initiative is raising funds for the NOcado campaign, as we fight a classic David and Goliath battle in north London.

Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger has created a new digital piece in response to the corporate skullduggery our north London community is facing. The artwork has been hidden under a grid of 66,528 squares, with the only clue to the nature of the artwork being the title: ‘One Potato, Two Potato’.

We are offering the unique chance to take part in unveiling this new artwork collectively by revealing squares for £1 each, in an order devised by the artist. Each participant will receive a link to download a high-res image of the piece after completion. Participants will automatically be entered into a draw to win one of 46 signed prints of the work (1 chance per square)*.

The NOcado campaign

Proceeds will go to the NOcado campaign, which has fought a two-year — and ongoing — battle to stop Ocado and M&S from opening a 24/7 delivery depot beside a primary school, a park and densely-populated housing. The online giants have abused planning loopholes to slip in under the radar. Rather than put in a planning application, they are attempting to change the usage of the site, which would enable them to operate intensively without the usual restrictions that would be imposed on a major urban development.

Despite being refused twice by the Council and losing a high court battle, they are now pursuing this loophole route for a third time.

66,528 squares

The number of squares is the amount, at present, it will cost in legal fees to fight Ocado and M&S’s latest two-pronged attack (pursuing the change of use loophole for the third time, as well as appealing the Council’s previous refusal to the Planning Inspectorate).

They are no doubt hoping the NOcado Campaign have dwindling funds and spirit, but our school, our neighbourhood and our community mean everything to us and we are still here, still fundraising, still fighting.

This should not be happening next to any school or within any community. We are actively working on a legacy project to prevent the same happening to others.

Mark Wallinger

With his studio is in nearby Archway, Wallinger says: “I spend over half my time in the area, so I feel like a local and for me the issues are clear-cut. During the Pandemic, many were reliant on home deliveries, but now we’re coming out of that we’re looking at the destruction this has wreaked on the high street and therefore on the community.”

Wallinger, who created the first artwork for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth and the Labyrinth series of plaques for London Underground, has been involved in social and political activism since the start of his career. State Britain, his 2007 Turner Prize-winning installation, comprised a recreation of an anti-Iraq War protest in Tate Britain.

‘One Potato Two Potato’

While the precise nature of his work for NOcado has been under heavy wraps, he describes ‘One Potato, Two Potato’ as his response to the challenge of creating an entirely online work for this important cause as “gently satiric”.

Wallinger says: “Seeing the children playing in such close proximity to the proposed depot, I was struck by how timeless their play is. The setting is very modern, the position of the site is extremely serious, but add a hula hoop or a football or a hopscotch pattern — which the children were playing when I was there — and you have a scene that could be age old. To this I’ve added a counter image of a land of ease where the normal rules of work don’t apply, inhabited by larger beings who are intoxicated by their own greed.”

REVEAL NOW

The success of this project depends on participation.... please help us to spread the word!

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