Jyll Bradley
Self-Portrait as Orlando 1987-2024 (framed), 2024
Digital photographic print from original negative on archival matt fibre Hahnemule paper in bespoke artist designed box frame of fluorescent live-edge Plexiglas.
29 x 29 x 4 cm
Edition 1 of 5 plus 1AP
Jyll Bradley (b.1966) was born in Folkestone and grew up in Kent.
In the 1980s, she took a series of self-portraits dressed as Orlando from the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name, which represents the love affair of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. The self-portraits connect to her experience of adoption – a lot of adoptees grow up with fantasies of aristocratic parentage. As a child, she was taken to lots of grand homes in Kent, in particular Knole and Sissinghurst, where she saw big painted family portraits and discovered the Orlando story. The fact that she looks like Vita piqued her interest – adoptees long to see someone who they resemble – and Vita's queerness, love of gardens and the gender fluid character of the novel, written for her by Virginia, resonated with Bradley.
She recently re-discovered this body of work and has box-framed a number of photographs with the same fluorescent material that she uses in her installations, framing her past with her present. The self-portraits show representations of queer identity that are about playfulness, doubt and vulnerability. They also add perspective to what we understand of art in the YBA (Young British Artist) era and queer image-making of the time.
Many Folkestone residents will be familiar with Bradley’s work through her Folkestone Triennial installation, Green/Light (for M.R.), which was commissioned in 2014 and installed in the Old Gasworks site on Foord Road until 2023. Self-Portrait as Orlando 1987-2024 is framed with the same luminescent Plexiglass.
Courtesy the artist and Pi Artworks
The Green Room
On 31 May 2026, The Grand will present two films by Bradley about her adoption experience. M.R. (2021) explores the artist’s search for her birthmother and uses the framework of her Green/Light (for M.R.) installation to tell the story of her adoption in Folkestone. The second film, The Meeting (2025) reflects on her first meeting with her birthmother which took place at the Palm House in Kew Gardens in 1992. The screenings will be followed by a conversation between the artist and former Folkestone Triennial curator, Lewis Biggs.
Biography
Jyll Bradley works across installation, photography, sculpture, film and performance. Her practice combines the formal vigour of Minimalism with ideas of identity, light, cultivation and community. Bradley studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths’ College (1985-88) and the Slade School of Art (1991-93). She is best known for her ambitious public works, such as The Hop (2022) for the Hayward Gallery and Green/Light (for M.R.) (2014) for the 2014 Folkestone Triennial.
In recent years Bradley has been exploring her archive of photography and in particular self-portraiture from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. This has given rise to gallery installations of photography and sculpture which she terms ‘memory rooms.’ These highly personal works reflect upon ideas of selfhood, past and present. Bradley's most recent exhibitions include her survey Running and Returning, The Box, (Plymouth, UK, 2025). Forthcoming shows in 2026 include the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.
Jyll Bradley’s monograph Running and Returning was published by Kulturalis in 2025. Her work is held in major collections including the Government Art Collection, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK; The Box, Plymouth, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK; The Faith Museum, UK and the National Library of Australia; as well as significant private collections internationally.