Press Gallery, House of Commons, Parliament

Jane and Louise Wilson are British artists, often known as “The Wilson Sisters”, as they are twin sisters who have exhibited and worked together throughout their career. Wilsons’ works are mostly in the format of large multi-screen video installations and photo-works, featuring abandoned institutional spaces and exploring the psychological dynamic of their deserted architecture. Elegant, haunting and arresting, Wilsons’ works draw on cinematic conventions and allusions to conjure a heightened, often uncanny atmosphere. According to the Wilsons, “We are interested in documenting architectural phenomena, abandoned bureaucratic buildings, buildings where there is a pathology attached.”

Both Parliament (1999) and Las Vegas, Graveyard Time (1999) capture institutional spaces yet of different kind: the former being the British Parliament and the latter being gaming rooms of Caesar’s Palace casino hotel in Los Vegas. Filmed and photographed when devoid of people, with a focus on the little chambers of powers in the Parlament’s House of Lords, and the techniques of surveillance and control in the casino, these ghostly images allude to a flip side of power and glamour, political, social and financial.