Neon Horse
This WE Wonder NOIR commission invited Patrick to create a new work to be placed in Wentworth Woodhouse, one of the largest stately houses in Europe. The architecture combines baroque and Palladian styles, with extensive gardens set within 50 acres of land.
Patrick wanted to create an installation in the Whistlejacket Room at Wentworth Woodhouse. The room takes its name from the painting of the racehorse, Whistlejacket, by George Stubbs. Whistlejacket was bought by the Marquess of Rockingham in the mid 1750s. Rockingham invited Stubbs to his home at Wentworth Woodhouse in 1762 and the painting is a result of that visit. It is now housed at the National Gallery but a reproduction still hangs in the room today.
“On my first site visit I was impressed by the scale of Stubbs ‘Whistlejacket’ painting. It’s a life size depiction of horse that dominates the room it was created for. I was fascinated how Stubbs had not included any background to the painting and solely focused on the horse itself. This was very unusual for the mid 1700s when horses were usually shown in landscaped surroundings and usually with a rider. The horse is shown rearing up with it’s hind legs on the floor. I noticed that directly across from ‘Whistlejacket’ was another ornately bordered space which had been created to receive a painting but not had been found and nothing in the archives suggested what had been shown here. I saw this as an opportunity to create a new work”
Patrick initially started to sketch horses that would create a visual pairing with actual Whistlejacket painting which would be displayed across the room.
“I wanted to create a life size horse that would float in the space”
To achieve this Patrick used neon as a medium to recreate one of his drawings of a horse that shows what would happen if the horse had leapt into the air with hooves off the ground.
There was also an unveiling of ‘Herd’ a collection of Patrick’s ceramic horse sculptures.
