How NOcado met Bruegel

Striking digital artwork revealed by Turner Prize-winning artist

Friday, 29th November 2024 — By Frankie Lister-Fell

NOcada

Mark Wallinger’s artwork to raise funds for the NOcado campaign


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TURNER Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger has revealed his latest piece – a striking digital artwork supporting the NOcado campaign.

The group fought and won a four-year battle to stop Ocado opening a polluting depot near Yerbury Primary School in Tufnell Park.

Mr Wallinger’s work, unveiled on Wednesday, combines elements from Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s Games and The Land of Cockaigne. Made up of jigsaw pieces, it contrasts the energetic play of schoolchildren with the greed of would-be developers on the site.

Mr Wallinger said: “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. I spend over half my time in the area, so I feel like a local and for me the issues were clear-cut.”

Mr Wallinger, whose studio is in nearby Archway, won the Turner Prize in 2007 for his installation State Britain, a recreation of the anti-Iraq war protest displayed in the Tate Britain.

Campaigners said the artwork – called One Potato, Two Potato – was a “powerful and satiric symbol” of community resistance. Funds raised through donations to unveil the image piece by piece online will support NOcado’s continued efforts such as paying legal costs.

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