England x Goal Click: Sally Barton

From Lancashire to London, and Southampton to Sheffield, fans share their footballing story and what supporting England both home and away means to them.     
 
Sally Barton is an artist and photographer who weaves feminine aesthetics and British folklore into her football-focused art. 
 
Collective Joy
 
My name is Sally Barton and I’m 25 years old. I’m originally from Sheffield but now based in London. I’m an artist and photographer, working out of OOF Gallery Studios in the Spurs’ Stadium. Through my art, I try to capture the essence of football culture while feminising football aesthetics.
 
Football has been a key theme in my work since I began studying at Chelsea College of Arts in 2018. Growing up in Sheffield, a football city, it was a way of life, a culture, a language. 
 
Watching England was always an important part of family life and the games would always be on in our house. I remember my grandad would listen to the games on the radio. 
 
When I moved to London, I used to watch football as a way of feeling at home and finding community. Those ideas then inspired my practice.

Markers of time passing
 
I remember my first England shirt, it was that classic red Umbro 2004-06 away kit. I found one at a car-boot sale a few years ago and had to buy it. I have photos of me as a kid wearing it, styled with a crown, my nan’s jewellery and Sheffield Wednesday socks. I seemed to always be feminising my experience of the game. I might try and recreate the look this summer. 
 
Ian Wright is my all-time favourite player, and then Saka! I just think they are angels. I could watch that video of Wrighty and his teacher reuniting every day. I also have a soft spot for Pickford. 
 
The 2008 World Cup was the most memorable tournament for me. I was 18, just finished school and it was a long hot summer before I started university. I worked at a cafe and would watch the games on my phone, or when I was not working, on the big screen in Sheffield city centre. I was even in Berlin for a game and watched it on a screen at the Brandenburg Gate. There was such a buzz that year - even my friends who did not watch football were excited. 
 
For me, the tournaments are a way of spending time with friends. I am excited to watch EURO 2024 with mates either at home or in the pub.
 
I‘m all about that collective joy and sense of community. It’s truly a magical feeling when everyone is united in backing the boys.
 
The ritual of supporting England makes it so special. How so many of us have watched the team since we were young, in all its different forms? 
 
It’s intergenerational as well, my grandad can still recite stats from the 60s. The big tournaments are markers of time passing and they can make a time in your life so memorable.

Giovanna
 
During my second year of uni, I lived off Holloway Road, by the Arsenal Stadium. I loved matchdays and they reminded me of being home. A few doors down from me was a lady called Giovanna, who was quite famous in the area for her hand-knitted Arsenal jumper. She would stand outside her door in the jumper on matchdays, chain-smoking. One day I asked if I could take her photograph, and she let me take some portraits. The photos were then published in the Arsenal fanzine, Poison Lasagna. I found a community online of Arsenal fans who were also creatives and it got me more and more into the game. 
 
After graduating, I worked at OOF Gallery and Magazine, which is connected to the Spurs’ Stadium. They curate shows about the intersection between art and football. I am now a studio holder there. 
 
Of course, I have to support Sheffield Wednesday, that is a given. But I am jammy and have friends with Arsenal season tickets, so it is fun to catch the games with them. I also love going to watch the BWSL too! 

Focal point commission
 
I’ve been commissioned by English Heritage and Photoworks, to photograph the Nine Ladies Stone Circle in Derbyshire. It is a bronze age stone circle cared for by English Heritage. For the commission, I worked with students at two primary schools because I wanted to centre their relationship to the landscape and reimagine the historic site as a playground. This involved running creative workshops at the stone circle, and inevitably hours of playing football there. I’m interested in the fact that stone circles were places of ritual in ancient Britain and now football grounds are instead. Many of the kids I worked with saw the green space at the Nine Ladies as a football pitch, not a historic site. I loved that. 
 
I also had this idea to make a shrine at a local football ground called Redmires Fields, so I wrapped an entire goalpost with ribbon. I wanted to think of football pitches as a place of ritual while combining them with the aesthetics of British folklore. 

Feminising football
 
Football is a very male-dominated sport and I think it’s important to highlight women’s experiences of fandom too. I hate the idea that women fans have to adapt or perform for male fans. We do not have to conform to their expectations of what a football fan is. A lot of women still do not feel comfortable at games because of ‘lad culture’, so the more we speak about it and reclaim it, the better. 
 
I was lucky enough to be cast in a Nike campaign in 2022 for the Women’s EUROs. I was in a shoot alongside the Lionesses. It was an amazing experience. There was such a strong celebration of womanhood on set and it made me feel very proud. I have taken that experience with me when creating my art.