Description

Azalea II belongs to Jennifer Lee’s Crystal Flower series and revisits the same meditation on disappearance, forgetting, and return that underlies Azalea I. While the two works share the same Artist’s Note, they approach that idea through distinctly different visual languages. Azalea I explores the flower within the context of Beyond Visibility, while Azalea II transforms the azalea into a crystalline structure shaped by light. In Azalea II, the recognizable form of the flower remains, but its petals are fractured into numerous reflective planes. The vivid pink surface appears simultaneously organic and mineral, as if a living flower has been preserved within a crystal. These fragmented facets suggest that memory does not return intact. What disappears may emerge again in a familiar form and color, yet the experience of seeing it has already changed. Created with oil paint and UV-reactive pigments, the work exists in two interconnected states. Under visible light, the azalea appears luminous yet materially present, surrounded by a cool blue and violet atmosphere. Under ultraviolet light, the flower undergoes a dramatic transformation. Reds, oranges, and yellows radiate from within the petals while the surrounding space deepens into intense blues and violets. Light no longer simply illuminates the flower but becomes an active force that reconstructs its presence. Through this transformation, Azalea II extends the central language of the Crystal Flower series. The flower becomes more than a botanical subject. It becomes a vessel for accumulated time and memory, repeatedly disappearing and returning through changing conditions of light. The same azalea can therefore be encountered differently, suggesting that what returns may appear unchanged while our perception, memory, and relationship to it have already been transformed.   View Azalea I