Art

Banned

Jill Iliffe

2018

Jill Iliffe · 2018 · United Kingdom

A painting confronts the suppression of women’s football and its enduring effects on participation and recognition.

It directly transforms the history of women's exclusion from football into a work held by a national football institution.

The Historian

Banned" by Jill Iliffe (2018) stands as a powerful testament to the decades-long struggle for women's inclusion in football. This painting reclaims a painful chapter in the sport's past, forcing institutions like The FA to confront their own complicity in suppressing women's participation and recognition. By preserving this history within its archives, "Banned" serves as a catalyst for ongoing reform.

The Psychologist

Banned reveals the psychological toll of erasure, as the artist Jill Iliffe embodies the collective trauma of women excluded from football. The painting's presence in a national institution acknowledges the projection of societal shame onto these women, now sublimated within the art itself, a manifestation of their enduring desire for recognition and belonging.

The Sceptic

This installation may inadvertently reinforce nostalgia for a retrograde era, romanticizing exclusion as "banned" rather than a deliberate act of erasure. By framing historical sexism as a singular event, it overlooks the ongoing marginalization and subtle forms of oppression that persist in the sport.

These are interpretations written in three voices, not quotations from any individual.

Language: N/A
Subject: The historical exclusion of women from football
Region: Europe
Tone: Angry
Difficulty: Familiar

National Football Museum, Manchester

Display status may vary; contact the museum for current access.

Sourcewomeninfootball.co.uk

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