{{Short description|British artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''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.<ref name="auto1">{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jul/10/leadersandreply.mainsection | title = Forging ahead | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 2004-07-10 | access-date = 2007-07-16}}</ref> He supported this claim with newspaper cuttings and diaries,<ref name="auto">{{cite news | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1955829.ece | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110517042703/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1955829.ece | url-status = dead | archive-date = 17 May 2011 | author=Whitworth, Damian | title = Jamie Shovlin: A Dream Deferred at Haunch of Venison | newspaper = The Times | date = 2007-06-23 | accessdate = 2007-07-16}}</ref> and the work was bought for £25,000 by Charles Saatchi. 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.<ref name="auto"/> 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."<ref name="auto2">{{cite news |url = http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article361157.ece |author = Jones, Alice |title = It's only mock 'n' roll but we like it |newspaper = The Independent |date = 2006-05-01 |accessdate = 2007-07-16 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155538/http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article361157.ece |archivedate = 2007-09-30 }}</ref> Commenting on the exhibition, Jamie said "I wouldn't call it a hoax. It's misdirection rather than tricking people. As an archetype of somebody from a difficult family, somebody like Anne Frank who did something normal in abnormal times, she has, I am sure, existed."<ref name="auto1"/>
In 2006 Shovlin created another exhibition based on the memorabilia of the fictional German glam rock band "Lustfaust".<ref>{{cite news |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 |newspaper = The Independent |date = 2006-05-06 |accessdate = 2007-07-16 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927201329/http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/david_lister/article362338.ece |archivedate = 2007-09-27 }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite news | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article698383.ece | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110517042726/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article698383.ece | url-status = dead | archive-date = 17 May 2011 | author= Januszczak, Waldemar | title = Beck’s Futures | newspaper = The Sunday Times | date = 2006-04-02 | accessdate = 2007-07-16 | location=London}}</ref> 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".<ref name="auto2"/>
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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.v22collection.com/v22ashwinstreet/past4_writings.php | author = | title = MIKE HARTE - MAKE ART | publisher = | date = | accessdate = 2009-01-21 | archive-date = 17 July 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110717182137/http://www.v22collection.com/v22ashwinstreet/past4_writings.php | url-status = dead }}</ref>
Shovlin's work can be found in the following collections, Charles Saatchi (Naomi V Jelish Project), Elspeth & Imogen Turner Collection (Lustfaust Memorabilia Collection, The Black Room Installation, The Ties That Bind Installation, Fontana Modern Masters and others), David Roberts (Fontana Modern Masters). Shovlin is represented by Haunch Of Venison (London, Berlin, Zurich, New York City), Unosunove Gallery (Rome), Horton Gallery (New York City) and Cosmic Galerie (Paris).
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://hortongallery.com/artist/jamieshovlin Horton Gallery Artist Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130134409/http://hortongallery.com/artist/jamieshovlin |date=30 January 2013 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110223204646/http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/index.php#page=home.artists.jamie_shovlin Jamie Shovlin at Haunch of Venison] * [http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jamie_shovlin.htm Jamie Shovlin at the Saatchi Gallery] * [http://www.naomivjelish.org.uk Jamie Shovlin, Naomi V Jelish, 2004] * [http://www.fontanamodernmasters.org/07.html Jamie Shovlin, Fontana Modern Masters, 2005] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070918114155/http://www.lustfaust.com/ Jamie Shovlin, Lustfaust, 2006] * [http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/art-now-jamie-shovlin Jamie Shovlin, In Search of Perfect Harmony, Tate Britain, 2006]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shovlin, Jamie}} Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:British conceptual artists Category:English contemporary artists Category:21st-century British artists Category:21st-century British male artists