Davy McGuire and Kristin McGuire, co-directors of Studio McGuire, are British multimedia artists. They create experiential artworks within the mediums of projection mapping, theatre, fine art, animation, moving image, art installations, video games and immersive technologies.
Early Careers and Personal Lives
The duo met in 2004 during a student exchange in Arnhem and married in 2005 in England. Davy graduated from Dartington College of Arts in 2005 with a degree in Devised Theatre, whereas Kristin studied Contemporary and Classical Dance at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Whilst continuously collaborating on joint art projects Kristin worked as a dancer with a variety of international dance and theatre companies including Cirque du Soleil until the duo set up their joint studio in Bristol. In 2017, Kristin graduated from Glasgow School of Art as a Master of Research in Creative Practices. The team is now resident in Kingston upon Hull where they create work under their company name Studio McGuire. They are represented by [Muriel Gupein Gallery] in New York, Woolff Gallery in London and the Projection Mapping Association of Japan in Tokyo and their works have been shown in more than 120 venues across 23 countries.
Public Artworks
Hologram Jukebox (2020) - A traditional jukebox in which the selected artist appears as a hologram inside the jukebox to perform to the audience using a pepper's ghost illusion technique. A Night at the Mansion (2019) - Harewood House commissioned an immersive visitor attraction for the Christmas period using projection mapping techniques. The experience was awarded Innovation of the Year by The Museums + Heritage Show Still Lives(2018) - Absolutely Cultured commissioned a series of window displays for Urban Legends, a winter light festival in Hull based on Hans Christian Andersen stories. Micropolis (2017) - Hull UK City of Culture commission to create an installation as part of The Land of Green Ginger project. Micropolis was cardboard sculpture of digital projections of a miniature city's inhabitants Starkers (2015) - An installation called Starkers for the Museums at Night commission at Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead using projection mapping to an animate a 200-year-old statue. Ophelia's Ghost (2015) - A life sized holographic projection of Hamlet's Ophelia into a water filled basin commissioned by Altered Festival's 2015 Contemporary Art in Ancient Churches programme and has been shown as part of Compton Verney Art Gallery's exhibition Shakespeare in Art. The Hunter (2013) - As part of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award short listing process Davy and Kristin created The Hunter, a projection mapped paper diorama which subsequently won the couple the award. The Hunter has since been exhibited at the 12th Quenington Sculpture Show, the Doddington Sculpture Show, as part of the McGuire's retrospective in Shoreditch Town Hall in London, the World of Projection Mapping Festival in Kagawa/Japan and A Lamb in Wolf's Clothing in Bermondsey, London. Psycho - Homage to Hitchcock(2012) - A projection mapped paper diorama depicting a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho movie. Peepboardpleasure (2010) - A video projection on the illustrations of a traditional seaside peep-through board. Exhibited in Bristol, as part of the Grüne Meile Festival in Germany, at Burdall's Yard in Bath and the Arts by the Sea Festival 2012 in Bournemouth. The artists were awarded a second stipend from the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen for this work for which they created the interactive video installation Peepboardpleasure - A Peep Board with a Twist. A Study of Eating Habits (2005) - A multimedia installation using techniques of video projection mapping. A Study of Eating Habits was shown at the 2006 European Media Arts Festival in Germany, the 2006 BBC Big Screen Liverpool and the 2008 Macau Arts Festival in China.
Gaming Experiences
Lucy (2019) - XR Stories commissioned project to create a digitally animated papercraft video game diorama which can be hung on a wall and played like a video game. The platform game was inspired by the character of Lucy Westernra from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Shelf-Life (2020) - XR Stories commissioned project to create a projection mapped platform game in which the player can manipulate a projected character (inspired by Super Mario) to jump across real objects in the physical world.
