Jane and Louise Wilson

Louise studied for a BA at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, and Jane at Newcastle Polytechnic (1989). For their degree show they submitted identical work (photographs where they appeared to be murdering each other, one by drowning, one with a noose).

Jane and Louise Wilson then studied together on the MA course at Goldsmiths College, London (1990–1992). When they left art school, they lived in King's Cross and made films of small living spaces, such as bed and breakfast rooms. Another early film showed them taking LSD for the first time.

Jane and Louise Wilson's work together includes multiscreen video installations and photo-pieces; their artworks often feature institutional spaces, for example an oil rig, the archives of the Stasi in East Berlin (the building had previously been used by the Nazis and Stalin's Russia), The Houses of Parliament, and the Apollo Pavilion in Peterlee designed by Victor Pasmore.

The pair were nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999, cited for their exhibition, Gamma at the Lisson Gallery in London. On the run up to the Turner Prize winner announcement, they also had a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London (1999).^[2] Art works that were exhibited included Stasi City, Parliament (A Third House), and Gamma, a multiscreen video installation that was filmed at the former US military base at Greenham Common in Berkshire. This site was used to house nuclear cruise missiles during the Cold War and decommissioned in 1992. The Wilsons' video moves through the deserted institution, where nothing is now happening, evoking disturbing memories and possibilities. There is a sense of unease and threat, implied but never realised. They are the only characters in the film, appearing in military-style skirts and polished black shoes.^[1]

In 2003, the Wilsons developed their work with greater complexity, involving not only multiple projections but also a variety of differently positioned surfaces as screens in the art work and exhibition A Free and Anonymous Monument (2003). It includes films of a microchip factory, playing children, a lake, a rusting oil rig and the Apollo Pavilion in Peterlee New Town, near Gateshead.^[3]

In 2009, they created Unfolding the Aryan Papers, based on the extensive research they conducted at the Stanley Kubrick Archive, University of the Arts, London. A commission by Animate Projects and the British Film Institute through the contemporary arts programme of the BFI Gallery, where the resulting installation was presented^[4][5]

Their 2010–11 work Face Scripting: What did the Building See? was a collaboration with Shumon Basar and Eyal Weizman based on film recorded in a building prior to an assassination and other footage taken by the Wilsons, all with a theme of digital surveillance. It was shown at the Sharjah Biennial in the UAE.^[6][7]

In 2013–14, Jane and Louise Wilson had a solo exhibition at Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, England which addressed the aftermath of atrocities.^[8] Their works Blind Landings (H-bomb Test Site, Orford Ness) #1-6 are in the collection and on display at Tate Britain.^[9]

In 2018, Jane and Louise Wilson were elected to be Royal Academicians.^[10]

From September 18, 2018–March 31, 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed Stasi City “widely considered one of the most important works of video art of the last half century...^[11]”

Their work Performance of Entrapment was shown in London from summer 2025 until January 2026. It was inspired by Roman remains found during building works in London and also ancient shrines in Japan, with idea of sacred architecture, time, memory and renewal.^[12]

• Official site
• 303 Gallery, New York: Jane & Louise Wilson (303 Gallery)
• Interview with Jane & Louise Wilson
• Audio interview with Jane & Louise Wilson about their images of Atlantic Wall Bunkers