Jessie Flood-Paddock

There’s a trend in makeup to look like makeup is not being worn. It’s barely visible and gives natural flawless skin. At the forefront of this trend is the skincare company Nude, which by its very name alludes to the tradition of the nude figure and the attendant associations of ideal beauty and purity.

The brand’s logo – all curves, stripped back to essentials, and partially abstract – is the wellspring for Jessie Flood-Paddock’s exhibition. Centre place is given to Nude (all works 2014), a reconstruction of the logo as a three dimensional figurative sculpture, a re-appropriation, if you like, back into the world of fine art. Nude has the most direct linkage to the logo, and was presaged by lengthy and repeated mental modelling in parallel with meditation on the potential of the logo and its various significations. 

From this work – the foundation stone of the show – all others are a departure, entailing different degrees of freedom and experimentation. For instance the curvilinear divisions of Dancing Nude are based on the shape of letters of the logo, as are the marks on Yellow Nude, Blue Nude and Yellow And Red Nude whose forms look somewhat like sunglasses lenses, but are actually derived from a meticulous scaling up of very quick and very basic preparatory sketches of rectangular shapes drawn when Flood-Paddock was initially conceptualising the show. Flowing in from the door and leading us into the show are sweeping cutouts, again loose transcriptions of the arcs of the logo, made in the specific blue of Matisse’s Blue Nudes. 

Jessie Flood-Paddock (b. 1977) studied at Royal College of Art (2003-5), Slade School of Fine Art (1996-2000), UCL London and The School at the Art Institute of Chicago, USA (1999). She lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include Tate Britain, London, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge and The Schtip, Sheffield.