Jamie Shovlin (born 1978) is a British conceptual artist. He staged his first exhibition in 2004, at Riflemaker in London, basing it on what he claimed were the drawings of a disappeared schoolgirl called Naomi V. Jelish. He supported this claim with newspaper cuttings and diaries, and the work was bought for £25,000 by

Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi ( ; ; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest advertising agency in the 19 ...

. Saatchi only realised the work was a hoax halfway through the exhibition when he noticed that the girl's name, and that of her teacher John Ivesmail, were both anagrams of Jamie Shovlin. It is occasionally suggested that Saatchi bought the work believing that Jelish was real. Asked about this, Shovlin replied "He fully knew what was going on. But the more I think about it, the more it adds another layer to the piece." Commenting on the exhibition, Jamie said "I wouldn't call it a hoax. It's

misdirection Misdirection may refer to: * Misdirection (magic), a technique used when performing magic tricks * Misdirection, a technique used for the purpose of pickpocketing * Misdirection (pickleball), a deceptive strategy when hitting the ball * Misdirec ...

rather than tricking people. As an

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of somebody from a difficult family, somebody like

Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...

who did something normal in abnormal times, she has, I am sure, existed." In 2006 Shovlin created another exhibition based on the memorabilia of the fictional German

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band "Lustfaust". 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." The collection (once exposed) was runner-up for the

Beck's Futures Beck's Futures was a British art prize founded by London's Institute of Contemporary Arts and sponsored by Beck's beer given to contemporary artists. Prior to the establishment of the prize in 2000, Beck's had sponsored several exhibitions of con ...

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". A 2006 project by Shovlin was an archive of letters and writings titled Mike Harte - Make Art. This piece consisted of an ongoing mail correspondence during 2001 from the Mike Harte, a long-time friend and collaborator of Shovlin. Shovlin's work can be found in the following collections,

(Naomi V Jelish Project), Elspeth & Imogen Turner Collection (Lustfaust Memorabilia Collection, The Black Room Installation, The Ties That Bind Installation,

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and others), David Roberts (Fontana Modern Masters). Shovlin is represented by Haunch Of Venison (London, Berlin,

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, New York City), Unosunove Gallery (

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

), Horton Gallery (New York City) and Cosmic Galerie (Paris).

References

External links

Horton Gallery Artist Page

Jamie Shovlin at Haunch of Venison

Jamie Shovlin, Naomi V Jelish, 2004

Jamie Shovlin, Lustfaust, 2006

Jamie Shovlin, In Search of Perfect Harmony, Tate Britain, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shovlin, Jamie 1978 births Living people British conceptual artists English contemporary artists 21st-century British artists 21st-century British male artists