Phillip King

Description

Sun and Moon continues King's fascination with the vast ball of fire that humans have named The Sun. It continues from a vein that has run through many of his previous works. In those he used the sun as an exclusive theme, although he approached it in many different ways.

In this instance, the moon is seen to co-exist as a pure white form and there is a sense of acknowledgement of the developed world, seen in the two pointed towers. This adds a human element to the vast interplay of galactic forms. The moon and towers are in some way dependent upon the messiah like sun, which looks down upon them through a swirl of space dust. There is movement within the sculpture, perhaps implying the endless orbits and rotations these colossal forms constantly undergo.

The whirlpool, perhaps of meteors, perhaps diffracted light, could imply the immense distance between these forms. Thin, scarlet red rods support the sun, and these could allude to the suns rays. These spokes centre into a hollow cone and it is this point around which the earth and moon are pivoted, joined by a thick band that could imply the gravitational pull that keeps our moon in orbit. Equally, if one takes into account their metaphorical and religious connotations, it could simply be reminding us of the traditional cultural bond between the moon and earth. Equally, the crown-like circa that here represents the sun implies an almost godly quality. He uses traditional depictions, moon smiling, and sun with jagged edges, and perhaps this is also alluding to ancient worship of sun as father and moon as mother.