Jyll Bradley: Airports for the Lights, Shadows and Particles

The Exchange, Penzance, March 6 - June 5, 2010

The Bluecoat, Liverpool, February 25 - May 1, 2011

An exhibition encompassing 20 years of Jyll Bradley’s practice, including photography, text, sound, installation, and newly commissioned works. Bradley employs the form and dynamics of commercial display, such as photographic light-boxes, to explore ideas of identity. She often creates works that respond to place, made through residencies over long periods of engagement.

In 2007-08 Bradley was Artist in Residence in Liverpool’s historic, yet neglected Botanical Collection, during which she presented an installation in the Bluecoat garden. Bradley’s retrospective exhibition, organized by The Exchange, Penzance, offered an opportunity to invite the artist back to the city to showcase her work beyond an interest in gardens to include literature, faith and portraiture. For the Bluecoat presentation Bradley included new works and also worked closely with interior designer Andrew Kirk to reimagine the design of the exhibition to elicit new experiences for audiences.

The unusual exhibition title comes from a quote by John Cage who once described Robert Rauschenberg’s white paintings as ‘Airports for the lights, shadows and particles.’ He recognised that a white surface is sensitive to its surroundings. Reflections arrive and depart, creating a greater awareness of the viewer’s environment and space.

Read my essay “She drinks like a plant the energy of light,” concerning Bradley’s new works in the Bluecoat exhibition here.

Installation images courtesy of the artist.