Maggie Brink
The sun is just the moon at night 2023
oil on aluminium
Courtesy of the artist and ReadingRoom, Melbourne
Artist statement:
I like to make paintings from source images whose potency comes from an openness in their signifying potential that I can exploit and extend by painting them.
The title of this painting is taken from the lyrics of a Black Sabbath song and the imagery might appear to represent an inverted cross. The photographic source image depicts marks on a cement footpath indicating the location of electricity lines beneath. The cigarette butt gestures in both directions at once.
It’s empirically untrue that the sun is just the moon at night, but the idea hints at a very human way of seeing and (mis)interpreting; the generative potential of misunderstandings in the process of meaning production; and the pleasure attendant to this. Whilst not strictly correct, these misfires reveal something true.