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False Positive, False Negative
False Positive, False Negative
False Positive, False Negative

False Positive, False Negative

Artist (Newcastle upon Tyne, England, born 1967)
Sitter (Newcastle upon Tyne, England, born 1967)
Date2012
Mediumscreenprint on mirrored acrylic
ClassificationsPrints
Dimensions59 × 94.5cm
Frame Size: 62 × 98cm
AcquisitionPurchased in 2013 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.
Copyright© Jane & Louise Wilson. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021
LocationOn Display - Gallery 18
Object numberABDAG017766
About MeIdentical twins Jane and Louise Wilson studied separately in Newcastle and Dundee before undertaking an MA at Goldsmiths College of Art, London. They began working together in 1989 and ten years later were nominated for the Turner Prize.

This disconcerting double self portrait was created in Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio and relates to the showing at DCA of their film installation Face Scripting – What Did the Building See? which focused on events that took place in a hotel room in Dubai in January 2010, when Hamas operative Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was assassinated. Comprehensive CCTV footage of the victim and the perpetrators was compiled and edited by the United Arab Emirates police, using face recognition technology to identify the subjects. Subsequently the Wilsons filmed at the murder scene, using specialist lenses and extreme close-ups. They appear in the film themselves with patterns painted onto their faces, actually dazzle camouflage designed to scramble the technology used in face recognition.

The use of mirrored Perspex adds to the uncanny quality of the print: the reflections of the viewer triggering the appearance of ghostly figures, suggesting at the CCTV evidence of victim and perpetrator of this as yet unsolved crime.

More About Me
The patterns painted on the artists' faces are a form of "dazzle camouflage" intended to confuse the facial recognition software used by CCTV cameras.
Exhibitions