Emily Shepherd @ WASPS, Hanson Street, until 10 Jan

Un-discovery is the thematic basis for Emily Shepherd’s ambitious new solo show at Hanson Street; a confluence of seemingly disparate events, it plays persistent tricks on its audience with riddles of fact and fiction, knowing and unknowing.

At the threshold, an open atlas offers some contextual orientation. It’s just one of the millions of atlases printed worldwide that mistakenly fuelled the perceived existence of île de Sable – an island off the coast of Australia that was officially undiscovered in 2012; removed from Google maps and consequently banished from the present tense. But you can’t always take an eraser to history, as is exemplified in the accounts of Vivienne Murray, the captivating interviewee in Shepherd’s faux-documentary, who is unfalteringly convinced of the existence of the island and her palpable (but strangely mythical) encounters with it. Questioning not only the sanity of this elderly woman but her very authenticity, the short film disorientates the viewer in such a way that we begin to doubt our own grasp on reality. There are even elements of the ever-reliable blurb to hint at its own mischievous mistruths. The video is a backdrop to a flawlessly seductive series of objects that fill a concise area of the cavernous hall. Each enlarged entity is representative of a feature from Google; the familiar mustard coloured man locating us at the centre of a magnified map that leads to nothing but an infinitely empty expanse of pristine ocean-blue.

It’s not just about an island that was there one minute and gone the next; the ephemerality of our experiences and our inability to trust our own memories come under scrutiny. Vivienne’s character and her displaced dealings with loss promote empathy, and while the soft surfaces and glossy blue are instantly gratifying, it’s sadness that we depart with. [Emma Ewan]