"Nothing is created in a vacuum. True growth comes from interaction, give and take, and the constant conversation between one’s inner self and the cacophonous world outside. In Remedy, Japeth Mennes and Mie Kongo parse the banal, the everyday, raw materials, and detached imagery into personal treatises on object relationships and observation. Both practices hinge upon a modicum of spontaneity where external stimuli act as catalysts for fastidious design and meticulous workmanship.
Whether sculpting or painting, each artist embraces the creative process as a way to understand and appreciate objects, materials, images, and ultimately the methods themselves. Mennes grapples with borrowed motifs in graphic immediacy while Kongo asks for a reexamination of simple components. Both reward our careful gaze with new connections and subtleties that allow the greater world to enter a private space made specifically for rumination and reflection."
