GRIMM is pleased to announce X, an exhibition of new work by the British artist Jess Flood-Paddock.

X refers to a process of mixing elements to create new forms. Like the use of ‘x’ in a botanical Latin name to denote a hybrid plant, X combines an offbeat selection of objects with the distinctive characteristics of the London Plane Tree, Platanus X Hispanica. The surface of Flood-Paddock’s new sculptures are made to resemble the textured bark of the tree beloved by town planners for its immunity to hardships of urban life, for it's ability to shed it's bark and cope with the elements no matter how polluted.

X seeks to operate as a kind of theatre of images and objects. Without aiming to draw neat conclusions about territories it enquiries into, the exhibition presents a sculptural scenario where relativism is pushed to extremes.

Two clay arms with a small stack of tree bark balanced on each hand is taken from an autobiographical event; when Jess visited her Grandmother and measured their forearms against each other, they were identical enough for her to envision what her own arm would look like 60 years from now. The cast of these similar arms poetically illustrates human relationships, mortality, the inevitable fleeting time, while at the same time this work stands in direct contrast to the London Plane Tree as a symbol of continuity.


Jess Flood-Paddock (1977) lives and works in London. Her work has been included in ‘Bold Tendencies 5’, ‘Fantastic Voyage’ (2011, Carl Freedman Gallery, London), ‘Recent British Sculpture’ (2010, GRIMM, Amsterdam and ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ (2010, Hayward Gallery, London).