Jamie Shovlin

Jamie Shovlin (born 1978) is a British conceptual artist who is noted for creating hoax exhibitions.

He staged his first exhibition in 2004 while an art student in Leicester, basing it on what he claimed were the drawings of a disappeared schoolgirl called Naomi V. Jelish. [cite web
url = http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1258210,00.html
title = Forging ahead
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 2004-07-10
accessdate = 2007-07-16] He supported this claim with newspaper cuttings and diaries, and the work was bought for £25,000 by Charles Saatchi. Saatchi only realised the work was a hoax half way through the exhibition when he noticed that the girl's name (and that of her alleged teacher) was an anagram of Jamie Shovlin. [cite web
url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1955829.ece
author=Whitworth, Damian
title = Jamie Shovlin: A Dream Deferred at Haunch of Venison
publisher = "The Times"
date = 2007-06-23
accessdate = 2007-07-16]

In 2006 Shovlin created another exhibition based on the memorabilia of a non-existent German glam rock band called Lustfaust. [cite web
url = http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/david_lister/article362338.ece
author= Lister, David
title = You couldn't make it up - but they do
publisher = "The Independent"
date = 2006-05-06
accessdate = 2007-07-16] This hoax was again supported with a network of websites Shovlin had created and prompted the cultural critic Waldemar Januszczak to tell his readers how the band had "cocked a notorious snook at the music industry in the late 1970s by giving away their music on blank cassettes and getting their fans to design their own covers." [cite web
url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article698383.ece
author= Januszczak, Waldemar
title = Beck’s Futures
publisher = "The Sunday Times"
date = 2006-04-02
accessdate = 2007-07-16] The collection (once exposed) was runner-up for the Beck's Futures prize. In September 2007 Lustfaust, together with Schneider T.M., gave a concert to help celebrate the opening of the new Berlin exhibition space for Haunch of Venison.

Shovlin claims that the main function of his hoaxes was not simply to fool the audience, but rather to let them gradually realise that they were being tricked, and encourage them to question their preconceptions. To this end he included clues in the exhibitions, such as notes describing Lustfaust as steering "dangerously close to Spinal Tap-isms". [cite web
url = http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article361157.ece
author= Jones, Alice
title = It's only mock 'n' roll but we like it
publisher = "The Independent"
date = 2006-05-01
accessdate = 2007-07-16]

A recent exhibition was "A Dream Deferred" dealing with the past 50 years of American history. [cite web
url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1955829.ece
author=Whitworth, Damian
title = Jamie Shovlin: A Dream Deferred at Haunch of Venison
publisher = "The Times"
date = 2007-06-23
accessdate = 2007-07-16]

References

External links

* [http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/index.php#page=home.artists.jamie_shovlin Haunch of Venison: Jamie Shovlin]
* [http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jamie_shovlin_biography.htm Saatchi Gallery: Jamie Shovlin]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artnow/jamieshovlin/default.shtm Tate Britain Art Now: Jamie Shovlin]
* [http://www.naomivjelish.org.uk/homepage.htm Naomi V. Jelish "official" archive]
* [http://www.lustfaust.com/ Lustfaust's "official" web site]