An artificial intelligence generated image of the artist.

Andy Cheng exists. That much is certain. Or is it? Reality is subjective and all we can really be sure about is our own existence. Cogito Ergo Sum, as they say – I think therefore I am.

To avoid a rapid descent into insanity however, we shall commit to the assertion: Andy Cheng exists. Who, then, is Andy Cheng? All human beings are 99.9% genetically identical so, in a sense, we are all Andy Cheng. Using the same spurious logic, we can also flip this statement on its head. Andy Cheng is all of us.

This train of thought is ultimately unhelpful. We are no more responsible for Andy’s artwork than he is responsible for the breakup of the Soviet Union. What then, we must ask ourselves, sets us as individuals apart from one another? Is it a tiny fraction of our DNA or the individual experiences we encounter throughout our lives?

Sadly, we know nothing about the experiences Andy Cheng has gone through in his life and must instead turn to his art for clues. Regrettably, this is likely to reveal more about ourselves than it is the artist. We can only view the world through our own perception of it and so, merely by viewing art, we change its meaning.

Andy Cheng thus proves elusive, unknowable, and yet oddly familiar