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• The Unknown Masterpiece, in progress.
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Unknown Masterpiece, Marx 1-31, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Descent of Man, Darwin 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Acts of the Apostles, Christ 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• The Acts of the Apostles, Christ 1-6, Oil On Canvas 40 x 30cm
• Installation, concertina folding Artists books, The Descent of Man and The Acts of the Apostles, 2022

Artists throughout history have learnt by mimicking those they admire, and then through a process of iteration – copying, combining and transforming – found new forms.

I is Everybody Else pays tribute to this process, and in doing so, it calls into question the notion of pure originality: the idea that ideas form in a vacuum, in one individual alone, rather than broadening our understanding of creativity as something gathered – all we’ve read, heard, felt and seen. Here, we acknowledge the fact that ideas bloom from a lifetime’s collection of other people’s ideas.

This project explores the process and possibilities of copying. To create the oil paintings in this series, each participant was given a portrait and instructions to copy only what was immediately before him or her. The painting they produced would then be passed onto the next painter to copy as accurately as possible. None of the participants had any knowledge of the paintings that came before the one they were copying.

Despite attempts to copy precisely, through this process, natural shifts in line and form occur. Viewing the drawings collectively, we see the adaption of forms, mirroring the history of art itself. Or, in the words of Grayson Perry, ‘Art History is just one big game of Chinese Whispers.’ As something inevitably changes through misunderstanding, interpretation or translation, it becomes something new.

In line with wider principles in Patrick’s work, the project shows artmaking as a collaborative project, not only between an artist and his or her personal history of influences; but also between that artist and the extraordinary range of collaborators who bring a work of art to life. To create this series, Patrick worked with students of Sichuan Fine Art Institute, local artists, artisans and community members in Chongqing over two months in 2019.

(Exhibition Wall Text 501XU Art Space Chongqing, 2019)