Sally Barton is a multidisciplinary artist based in London whose practice has been shaped by her childhood in Yorkshire.
From the legacies of industry to Yorkshire’s breathtaking landscape, she explores the relationship between land, labour and gender.
Orgreave Shrine explores the Battle of Orgreave which took place during the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike. The work includes a football scarf, branded with imagery of the Battle of Orgreave and the slogan ‘Orgreave Truth and Justice’ in honour of the campaign for a public inquiry into the events of that day.
The scarf lays over a steel goal post, transformed into a shrine, embellished with ribbons and trinkets. Small-scale sculptures of the miners as fairies also surround the goal post.
“My grandad tells me stories of industry, miners and protest as I drift off to sleep. His stories are hazy and warm, his own little fairy tales that have me dreaming of state violence.
In the morning he makes me breakfast and drops me off at ballet on Parson Cross. I know he will be asleep in the car waiting for me. I wonder what his dreams look like, I wonder if that dream still lives on.”
