Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block)

Jyll Bradley

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About the Artwork

Please note this artwork is no longer on display.

Commissioned by Turner Contemporary and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust in collaboration with Culture Kent.

Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block) is an artwork pavilion activated by light which takes its structure from early glasshouse technology. The work was commissioned to mark the 350th anniversary of the infamous Dutch Raid on the River Medway, Kent an event which precipitated an end to the Anglo-Dutch wars. The peace which followed lead to cultural exchange between the two nations based on growing plants under glass. Dutch/Light re-considers the idea of the glasshouse as a minimalist sculpture, a space with potential for both practical and metaphysical growth and change. Created through pairing old naval timbers from Chatham Dockyard with contemporary edge-lit Plexiglas, the work hovers between structural strength and transient transparency – changing in feeling and appearance through the day’s passage. Dutch/Light’s colours – green for the UK and orange for the Netherlands – act together as an indeterminate liquid flag, in sunlight creating a space of shifting geometric colour. The work is named for a key figure in Dutch horticulture – Agneta Block (1629-1704), an art patron and plantswoman who was the first European to grow a pineapple from seed.

 

Watch the collaborative film Lean/In featuring Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block):

Watch Lean/In

Copyright the artist. Photo: © Nick Turpin

Material

Re-purposed timber from Chatham Naval Dockyard, Edge-Lit Plexiglas, mirrored steel, steel plate.

Dimensions

6.3m wide, 5m tall and 3.5m depth

Artist Biography

Jyll Bradley

Jyll Bradley (b. Folkestone, UK, 1966). Lives and works in London. Jyll Bradley studied at Goldsmiths College (1985–88) and The Slade School of Art (1991–3). Since the early 1990s she has exhibited in the UK and internationally including: The British Art Show, Hayward Gallery, London (1990); Museo De Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia (2004); Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China (2004); Arnolfini, Bristol, (2005); the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2008); Newlyn Art Gallery (The Exchange), Penzance (2010); the Bluecoat, Liverpool (2011); The National Library of Australia (2013); Mummery+Schnelle, London (2014), The Folkestone Triennial (2014), The Drawing Room Biennial, London (2015, 2017, 2019); New Art Centre (2017); Turner Contemporary,Margate (2017-18) and Sculpture in the City (2018). Jyll Bradley’s work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Government Art Collection, UK; the Walker Art Gallery, UK; Folkestone Artworks, UK, The National Library of Australia, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery.