Jamie Shovlin - Naomi Jellish (2004)

Shovlin's work tests the boundaries of ambiguity, he spent three years at the Royal Academy fabricating an intricate narrative about the young drawing sensation - Naomi Jellish - who along with her family disappeared in 1991 following the death of her father. In 1999 an exhibition in Gravesend is organised by Naomi's old science teacher John Ivesmail who had befriended the family and in turn recovered naomi's drawings from the abandoned home. A somewhat beguiling friendship between the student and teacher is revealed when Ivesmail passes on the collected memorabilia and Naomi's drawings, notebooks and belongings to Jamie Shovlin who uses his position to curate an exhibition in memory of the girl. The serpentine narrative backed by material objects formed a gripping yet believable story that I had personally heard about before even discovering it was completely fabricated.

This work has posed questions about my own practice, one particular thing is that if I want my construction of Vera to be authentic or I want her to lie between the _____

but suggesting that it needs to be believable and authentic would discard the curation of characcters within films and other fictional realms