Jennifer J. Lee’s Cold Turkey

Ivy Building, 2019. Oil on jute, 13 × 9 inches

In the 1990 Tetris-style videogame Dr. Mario, the little doctor stands in the top right of the screen, tossing brightly coloured capsules down for the player to manipulate and align with their respective viruses. The little doctor wears a lab coat, existing here only as a pill-tossing mass of pixels. Crudely drawn up-close but somehow seamless from afar. 

While advances in technology have finessed the quality of images that populate our channels of observation, no matter how HD an image, zoomed in it’s still pixels. This phenomenon is echoed in the work of artist, Jenny J. Lee. Cold Turkey, presented by Lulu, features small-scale works in large spacious rooms and echoing hallways. The works are painted on jute—its sizeable, open teeth parrot the topographic aesthetic of pixels. A stack of tires, a pile of pumpkins gnarled with edemas, an old stone facade overgrown with ivy—snapshots that echo the banality of image production heighten this digital aesthetic by virtue of its paradoxical, traditional execution. If you look closely, how clearly do you really see? Cold Turkey is on view at La Maison De Rendez-Vous until December 14th.  -Rebecca Storm

Pumpkins, 2019. Oil on jute, 10 × 10 inches

Tires, 2019. Oil on jute, 9 × 11 inches

Installation View

Untitled, 2019. Oil on jute, 8 × 6 inches

Hedges, 2019. Oil on jute, 10 × 13 inches