Installation view. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Press release, November 2020
...but he supposes he knows something when he does not know, while I... eeeerrrr... just as I do not know, do not even suppose that I do. I am likely to be a little bit wiser than he in this very thing: that whatever I do not know, I do not even suppose I know. – Plato, Apology, section 21d.
JIR SANDEL is pleased to present Super Cogitandi, a solo exhibition by Mia Line.
Through a jumble of references from popular culture, philosophy and everyday life, the show explores thought as a phenomenon and the activity of thinking as such. Thinking, thinking twice, overthinking.
The largest body of work is a bean bag chair shaped as a cartoon thought bubble. By playing on the sign's familiarity, the work is understood both in relation to its context and decoding. Even if it’s characterized by a certain lightness, the bubble symbolizes the materialization of the invisible. A bean bag chair is an impossibility of a chair that almost encapsulates the person sitting, making it difficult to get up again.
On the floor, cardboard letters spell out the sound eeeerrrr – a filler noise often employed in a speech flow when needing a few extra seconds to think about an adequate phrasing. At the same time, it shares spelling with 'to err', a synonym of 'to fail', and in Danish an inflection of 'at være' – 'to be'. Foam Fingers' starting point is the paraphernalia item often seen at sports events, especially in the US. The two in the exhibition depict Plato's hand in the painting The School of Athens by Raphael and Socrates' hand in the painting The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David. In the two pictures, Plato and Socrates raise one hand up, gesturing the air with the index finger. The finger points to the realm of thought and ideas, where, accordingly to their theories, the highest principles of virtue lie and to which one must aspire.
Plato foam finger 1 and Socrates foam finger 1, 2020 (Foam board, acrylic paint. 55 x 30 x 5 cm). Photo: Malle Madsen.
Installation view. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Er, 2020. Card board, paint. Variable dimensions. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Plato foam finger 1 and Socrates foam finger 1, 2020 (Foam board, acrylic paint. 55 x 30 x 5 cm). Photo: Malle Madsen.
Er, 2020. Card board, paint. Variable dimensions. Detail. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Installation view. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Untitled, 2020. Beaver nylon, polystyrene. Variable dimensions. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Untitled, 2020. Beaver nylon, polystyrene. Variable dimensions. Detail.
Photo: Malle Madsen.
Untitled, 2020. Beaver nylon, polystyrene. Variable dimensions. Photo: Malle Madsen.
Exhibition period: December 4-9, 2020.