We've Got Joy

We’ve Got Joy was specially commissioned to commemorate the experiences of female fans of Bury Football club. Over the course of the project I gathered first-hand experience from female fans, selected quotes were then printed on a five-meter-long calico scarf. The print and dying techniques were chosen to commemorate Bury’s manufacturing past, a number of methods for printing and dying calico were pioneered in Bury’s mills. We’ve Got Joy was exhibited at Arch 7 as part of Design Manchester in November 2019.   

 “When I was first approached to make some work about the sad demise of Bury Football Club, my first instinct was to say, sorry, you’ve got the wrong girl. Because my feelings about football are, how do I put this delicately, not entirely positive. I don’t watch it, I don’t enjoy it, it’s not my bag. As I found out more, though, it became clear to me that this project was not really about football at all, or at least it’s not just about men running after a ball on a pitch. It’s about community and loss, it’s about emotions, intimate family histories. It’s about people finding connections with each other and coming together in spaces that contain links to their past and hopes for their future. It’s about women carving out spaces for themselves to thrive in. Those things are all very much my bag.”

We’ve Got Joy is a project that seeks to celebrate and commemorate the extraordinary women who found joy and community in Bury F.C. and each other. Inspired by Bury fan Joy Hart, who chained herself to the gates of the club to protest its closure.

A five-metre-long scarf printed with text gathered from female fans describing in their own words what the club has meant to them, embodies the idea that whilst the club is gone the community remains.

The scarf has a handmade aesthetic, inspired by football scarves often handknitted in club colours by female fans, for themselves and male relatives. These were often embellished with favourite players’ names embroidered on and other memorabilia added. The scarf is hand printed on to dyed calico as a reference to Bury’s manufacturing past, when many of the mills in the town specialised in printing and dying calico.