The basis of my work is, what is the work of light, and how can I manifest that in my everyday life and in my artwork?
Jyll Bradley, artist
Bradley grew up in rural Kent, experiencing and immersing herself in the natural light of the countryside. When she moved to London at 18, she encountered a completely different kind of light – the urban light that only a large, bustling city can have. During her time as a student at Goldsmiths College she would spend hours walking around the West End when it was lit up at night with its brightly illuminated theatre signs and advertising boards.
It might not, therefore, come as a surprise to know that Bradley was the first artist in the UK to use the light box as a formal device in her work – but rather than using it in a standard way she transformed it into a sculptural element and used it to explore ideas around identity and sexuality. As a result, the light boxes became artworks in their own right – installations that communicate ideas of friendship and poetry rather than the hard-edged commercial vehicles we normally see them as.
The light box examples in Running and Returning were created at different times during a 25-year period between 1989 and 2013, which goes to show what an enduring art form they are for Bradley.
They include early works such as Naming Spaces (1989) and Urban Cowboys (1990) which was commissioned by the British Art Show, as well as light box works from a 2008 Liverpool-based project commissioned for the European Capital of Culture, during which Bradley worked with local people to reconnect them with the city’s rich but dispersed botanical heritage.
We often think of light as a given. It’s everywhere. We wake up in the morning, there’s light. But what….. do we do with that light? What’s the work of that light on a….. philosophical or spiritual level? And also a very practical level….. That’s why I’m so interested in (the) structures….. that humans build in order to bring light to a place, to grow something, to do something.
Jyll Bradley, artist
Find out more about Jyll Bradley: Running and Returning (until 2 November 2025), a major exhibition that explores her rich and varied career through photography, film, sculpture and more.
Read our post about The Hop by Jyll Bradley.
