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.[1] 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.[2]
In 2006 Shovlin created another exhibition based on the memorabilia of a non-existent German glam rock band called Lustfaust.[3] 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."[4] The collection (once exposed) was runner-up for the Beck's Futures prize.
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".[5]
Shovlin's most recent exhibition is "A Dream Deferred" dealing with the past 50 years of American history.[6]
References
- ^ "Forging ahead". The Guardian. 2004-07-10. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Whitworth, Damian (2007-06-23). "Jamie Shovlin: A Dream Deferred at Haunch of Venison". The Times. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Lister, David (2006-05-06). "You couldn't make it up - but they do". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Januszczak, Waldemar (2006-04-02). "Beck's Futures". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Jones, Alice (2006-05-01). "It's only mock 'n' roll but we like it". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Whitworth, Damian (2007-06-23). "Jamie Shovlin: A Dream Deferred at Haunch of Venison". The Times. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)