Jane & Louise Wilson "Jane & Louise Wilson"
23.01–17.03.2004
de Appel, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, Amsterdam
de Appel, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, Amsterdam
A Free and Anonymous Monument, 2003
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
Proton, Unity, Energy, Blizzard, 2000
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
Gamma, 1999 I
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
II
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
© Peter Cox, Eindhoven
‘The work of the twin sisters Jane & Louise Wilson is strange, insistent and impressive. Since starting to work together in 1989, the Wilsons have been fascinated by the power structures implicit in institutional buildings and the oppression and fear that these buildings can induce. Their video installations and photoworks show divergent images of the relationship between man and architectural space.
Power becomes visible in details of buildings and is evinced in the role played by codes. Gamma was filmed at Greenham Common, an American military base in Berkshire, England, that housed cruise missiles during the Cold War. Decommissioned in 1992, the base now lies deserted, its history captured by the Wilsons in disturbing images that seem both documentary and surreal. Moving through area after area of the site, the Wilsons’ camera evokes a sense of oppression, paranoia, and terror imparted by the everyday materials of military reality and the prospect of nuclear war. Jane & Louise Wilson deliberately play with the line separating fact and fiction. Their works often consist of several components: video projections, series of photographs related to a specific place, and sometimes sculptures. By using different media, the Wilsons create theatrical and atmospheric installations that, in terms of scale and physical experience, have an immediate effect on the spectator. A Free and Anonymous Monument, a study of Victor Pasmore’s Apollo Pavilion, originally built in the city centre of Gateshead, reveals the decay of post-war modernism. Images of kids hanging around the neglected, grafitti-covered monument provide a melancholic picture of post-war architecture, itself an echo of a pre-war Utopia, that seems in the meantime to have become a dated vision of the future.
‘Jane & Louise Wilson’ at De Appel is the first survey of their work in the Netherlands. Jane & Louise Wilson (Newcastle, 1967) live and work in London. Their work has been frequently exhibited in Europe and the United States. A selection of their exhibitions: 2003 A Free and Anonymous Monument, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered, Migros Foundation, Zurich 2002; Outer and Inner Space... a video exhibition in 3 parts, Museum for Fine Arts, Richmond Virginia; Wallflowers, Kunsthaus Zürich 2001;‘Egofugal, VII Istanbul Biënnale 2000; Stasi City & Crawl Space, MIT List Visual Art Centre, Cambridge 1999; Clues, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam 1995; Wild Walls, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 1999 they were nominated for the Turner Prize. One of their few solo exhibitions was shown that year at the Serpentine Gallery in London.’ (Press release De Appel)
Power becomes visible in details of buildings and is evinced in the role played by codes. Gamma was filmed at Greenham Common, an American military base in Berkshire, England, that housed cruise missiles during the Cold War. Decommissioned in 1992, the base now lies deserted, its history captured by the Wilsons in disturbing images that seem both documentary and surreal. Moving through area after area of the site, the Wilsons’ camera evokes a sense of oppression, paranoia, and terror imparted by the everyday materials of military reality and the prospect of nuclear war. Jane & Louise Wilson deliberately play with the line separating fact and fiction. Their works often consist of several components: video projections, series of photographs related to a specific place, and sometimes sculptures. By using different media, the Wilsons create theatrical and atmospheric installations that, in terms of scale and physical experience, have an immediate effect on the spectator. A Free and Anonymous Monument, a study of Victor Pasmore’s Apollo Pavilion, originally built in the city centre of Gateshead, reveals the decay of post-war modernism. Images of kids hanging around the neglected, grafitti-covered monument provide a melancholic picture of post-war architecture, itself an echo of a pre-war Utopia, that seems in the meantime to have become a dated vision of the future.
‘Jane & Louise Wilson’ at De Appel is the first survey of their work in the Netherlands. Jane & Louise Wilson (Newcastle, 1967) live and work in London. Their work has been frequently exhibited in Europe and the United States. A selection of their exhibitions: 2003 A Free and Anonymous Monument, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered, Migros Foundation, Zurich 2002; Outer and Inner Space... a video exhibition in 3 parts, Museum for Fine Arts, Richmond Virginia; Wallflowers, Kunsthaus Zürich 2001;‘Egofugal, VII Istanbul Biënnale 2000; Stasi City & Crawl Space, MIT List Visual Art Centre, Cambridge 1999; Clues, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam 1995; Wild Walls, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 1999 they were nominated for the Turner Prize. One of their few solo exhibitions was shown that year at the Serpentine Gallery in London.’ (Press release De Appel)
