In the beginning, there was Football invites viewers to reflect on this interconnectedness of the 90-minute game within the larger world. One artist passes the ball to another, exploring the significance of football in society through art and contributing to the mythmaking around the Women’s World Cup.

This framework of inquiry takes inspiration from Hannah Wilkinson, a three-time Olympian, four-time FIFA World Cup player, musician, and visual artist. Wilkinson’s two limited edition prints use powerful imagery and poetical language to explore the philosophy and emotion in football. Her work reveals her deep emotional connection and proximity to the game. In Heart in the Game, football is inseparable from her sense of self. On the other hand, in Soccerates, Wilkinson playfully positions a football at the feet of Socrates, applying the Socratic method in the context of football. This juxtaposition alludes to the pursuit of virtues and the enrichment of the soul through football, comparable to the ancient Greek peripatetic school. Here, substituting walking with playing football as a means of acquiring knowledge and wisdom. One print focuses on logic (‘logos’) in understanding the game’s significance in society, and its associated ethics and values, while the other explores emotion (‘pathos’) equating football with love, and expressing what is at stake with football—the heart.

The exhibition title refers to South Korean artist Sungrea Kim’s Tree of Knowledge sculpture—wherein, the forbidden fruit is replaced by the forbidden football, and Adam and Eve are replaced by two happy magna-like figures. Here, the artist overturns John Milton’s Paradise Lost narrative that is maintained in history, and breaks away from the original shame imposed on women. Eve ponders:

And render me more equal, and perhaps

A thing not undesirable, sometime

Superior: for inferior who is free?

— John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book IX)

For Sungrea Kim, women voluntarily walk out of the Garden of Eden towards liberation—unparadised and yet free to play the beloved sport in peace. Alternatively, this sculpture can be an homage to the countless times women’s sports have needed a reintroduction into society and one final hard genesis to move forward in the game without setbacks. Moreover, Kim’s other “drawing-sculptures” are made as a response to the men’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, feature an Islamic girl Laila in her burka inspired by Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Kim’s four Laila-inspired sculptures return to the love of the sport—regardless of what people wear and where it’s played—people are happy just to play.

On the other side of the hemisphere, in São Gonçalo, Brazilian artist Jefferson Medeiros, continues to explore how violence pervades the sport beyond the field. As a professor in Rio de Janeiro, he has witnessed students forsake their educations in pursuit of a career in football, only to fall into violence. In his sculpture, Trava Social, one of the spikes of the cleats is replaced by a found bullet casting to express violence as an impediment to the full development of young athletes. His works are not monuments to violence, but different ways of thinking about it that prompt a “this shouldn’t be here” visceral response from the viewer. This same feeling occurs in La Pelota Perforada—a football is deflated with an abstract incision that resembles a map of Brazil or Latin America. By deliberately puncturing the surface, he conveys his belief that football is a synthesis of society, wherein the wound in the football is a non-return answer of what is happening beyond the field.

The historical stop-and-go motion is echoed in three prints made near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, where Shannon Bono lives and works. Bono’s work is inspired by African spirituality, black womanhood, and the magical movements of West African masqueraders. In 2022, Bono formed a connection with Chioma Ubogagu, a footballer who at the time was playing for the Women’s Tottenham Spurs Team. Chioma became Bono’s muse, and unaware to Bono at the time, Chioma was being suspended for nine months due to anti-doping violations related to prescribed acne medication. This situation exposes another facet of the issue, emphasizing the societal pressures imposed on women to conform to societal pressures to “look good” and perform at a high level, and recalls the lack of research conducted on women's health in sports. While some progress has been made, such as New Zealand opting for blue shorts instead of white due to period anxieties, addressing these challenges requires additional time, research, social acceptance, and investment to find solutions. Regardless, Bono persisted in creating an extraordinary body of work that captures Chioma in motion and celebrates her athletic achievements. Despite facing difficult times and challenges, Bono's art instills confidence and empowers women, highlighting their resilience and strength in motion.

Despite the challenges on and off the field, there is that word “love” again present from the beginning. This exhibition comes full circle with Israeli artist Ella Littwitz and the genealogy of football unearthed in her two artifacts-cum-sculptures. She places one fossilized football, spanning generations and civilizations, next to a smaller Geode, also known as “Elijah Ball” (or sometimes "Elijah Watermelon"), a hollow stone that is formed inside a rock because of the decomposition of organic matter. Subtly, Littwitz explores the likeness of a very human activity of football to the all-encompassing backdrop of “deep time” in geology. This duality prompts contemplation on the significance of football in shared history within the context of the larger natural world.