Description

Apple II presents three red apples arranged side by side against a quiet, neutral background. At first glance, the composition follows the familiar tradition of still-life painting, focusing attention on the rounded forms, vivid color, and textured surfaces of the fruit. Yet the work began with an ordinary experience: freshly picked apples were left untouched, and over time their appearance gradually began to change. For Jennifer Lee, these subtle changes became visible evidence of time. The marks appearing on the apples were not simply signs of aging, but traces of moments that had already passed. The fruit remained physically present, yet it was no longer identical to what it had been when first picked. Time had quietly entered the image and altered it. This transformation turns the still life into a meditation on irreversibility. Time continually carries all living things forward, leaving changes on surfaces, bodies, objects, and memories. We may remember an earlier state or wish to return to it, but the journey moves in only one direction. The three apples therefore become modest witnesses to a universal condition: existence is continuously changed by time. Presented within Origins, Apple II connects the traditional language of still life with a theme that becomes increasingly significant in Jennifer Lee’s practice: the trace left by existence through the passage of time. In an ordinary object and its gradual transformation, the artist recognizes the beginnings of a broader question that continues throughout her work: what remains after a moment has passed and can no longer be recovered?