Far Out by Philip Larkin
Beyond the bright cartoons
Are darker spaces where
Small cloudy nests of stars
Seem to float on air.
These have no proper names:
Men out alone at night
Never look up at them
For guidance or delight,
For such evasive dust
Can make so little clear:
Much less is known than not,
More far than near.
Far Out by Philip Larkin was written in 1959, the year that the Astralist manifesto was launched as a response to the first-ever mission by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 to photograph the 'dark' side of the moon.
The neon work Beyond the bright cartoons was created in response to the works of Claudio Del Sole by the artist D J Roberts for London Art Fair 2018.