The Scientist (2025)

The series comprises a set of mixed-media works on paper laid out along shelves covered in wax with the occasional floating objects in space. From afar they resemble a series of highlighted text that you are invited to read, but up close you are confronted with blocks of colour and infrequent text, which spell out affective words like, "hugs, kisses, I miss you...". The formal qualities in these works take care of themselves, in the sense that the distribution of the color-highlighted sections was predetermined by the arrangement of the research data. The series comments on our mode of thinking that art and science, more generally, operate in quite different spheres, and their respective practitioners barely understand one another. While the former is viewed as objective and the latter as subjective personal choices and interests ultimately inform what and how each research is done – something recognized in artistic practice. Yet, popular culture imaginaries view both the scientist and the artist as eccentric figures typically working intensely in isolation in the lab or the studio which are rarely ever seen. But, life always happens: the lab or the studio are brought home, and home makes its way in there through interruptions and interactions with loved ones. They inevitably bleed into one another. For Mece, the realization that one’s professional life cannot be insulated from one’s personal life came from her children's interruptions which actually affected her work. The children’s comments that spice the works are emblematic of these influences.