Performance of Entrapment by Jane and Louise Wilson

About

London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE will present Performance of Entrapment, a new installation by Jane and Louise Wilson, opening 17 July 2025. The commission draws on the site’s rich history, inviting viewers to engage with its layered past in a new and unique way.

Central to the installation will be 2,000-year-old oak stakes, believed to have once supported a crossing over the River Walbrook - an ancient waterway that flowed beside the Temple of Mithras and still runs beneath the streets of modern London. These ancient timbers, shown to the public for the first time, were discovered during excavations for Bloomberg’s European headquarters, which unearthed over 14,000 Roman artefacts. The Wilsons use high-resolution microscopic imagery of the oak’s grain as a starting point for a new body of work. Blending screen-printing, resin, and carved wooden forms, the artists highlight the hidden details of the wood’s structure—drawing inspiration from its patterns and DNA sequencing to create large-scale, visually layered artworks.

Performance of Entrapment continues the Wilson’s exploration of culturally significant sites, investigating parallels between the Roman Temple of Mithras and Japan’s Ise Jingu shrine —two sacred places dating to the 1st–3rd century BC. Though geographically and culturally distant, they both feature similarities in iconography and house significant relics: the head of Mithras in London, and the Sacred Mirror of the Emperor at Ise Jingu. The Geku and the Naiku, the two most sacred Shinto shrines, are rebuilt and relocated to an adjacent site every 20 years. This rare practice keeps ancient skills and knowledge alive, connecting the old with the new.

In 2023, the Wilsons filmed within Ise Jingu’s restricted grounds with full cooperation and final approval from shrine authorities. The film explores themes of sisterhood, duality and renewal, and will be projected onto a suspended mirror and featured on a cascading LED curtain. “Ise City is the home to the Ise Ondo, a traditional female folk-dance group that dates to the Edo period” the Wilsons explain. “The film, made with the group, explores re-enactment of traditions. Filmed using hand-held Bolex cameras and mirrors, the images bounce and shift like coded light signals. This creates a feeling of being in two worlds at once - strange, yet familiar - like looking at ourselves through a mirror.”

By weaving together archaeology, mythology, and contemporary art, Jane and Louise Wilson offer a powerful reflection on time, memory, and renewal.