Davy McGuire and Kristin McGuire, co-directors of Studio McGuire, are . 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.
Theatrical Projects.
The Icebook.
During a 4-month residency at the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Davy and Kristin created the "Icebook", the world's first projection mapped pop up book in which a story is back projected onto the pages of the book. After putting a trailer of the work online, it went viral and launched the pair as an artist duo who had invented a new artistic medium by fusing projection mapping, paper craft, book art, theatre, performance and animation.
The "Icebook" has been featured internationally on TV (Canal+ in France, Deutsche Welle in Germany and on NHK in Japan), as well as being published in Digital Arts, Contagious Magazine and Elle Girl Korea and several thousand international websites and blogs. Since 2011 the Icebook has toured to at least 60 art festivals, theatre festivals, digital art festivals, cinemas and film festivals, conferences and art galleries around Europe, America and Asia.
The Paper Architect.
In 2013 Davy and Kristin received the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Award for their presentation of two projected paper dioramas, "The Hunter" and "Psycho - Homage to Hitchcock". The production grant was awarded to create "The Paper Architect", a theatre show blending paper craft, animation and live action, co-produced by the Barbican Centre London with CREATE in association with the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. "The Paper Architect" was invited to Perth International Arts Festival in 2015 where it won the Helpmann Award for Best Visual Theatre Production.
Theatre Book Macbeth.
Theatre Book - Macbeth (2014) was an interactive pop-up book that brought 'the Scottish play' to life with miniature projection mapping. The multi media book featured six pop-up pages designed like sets on a stage, with actors projected onto the paper scenery and the audience could turn the pages to drive the story forward. The project was co-created with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Howl's Moving Castle.
For Christmas 2011, Davy and Kristin McGuire designed and directed a stage adaptation of "Howl's Moving Castle" at the Southwark Playhouse, who also commissioned the project. The production involved actors interacting with live video projections onto a set that replicated a paper pop-up castle. Howl's Moving Castle was adapted for the stage by Mike Sizemore and featured an original score by Fyfe Dangerfield. The cast included Stephen Fry as narrator Daniel Ings as Howl, Susan Sheridan as old Sophie, James Wilkes as Calcifer and Kristin played the part of young Sophie and the Witch of the Waste. Prior to its premiere "Howl's Moving Castle" received considerable media attention featuring on TV BBC News London, The Late Show with Joanne Good on BBC Radio London, national press and BBC online. After initial challenges due to technical difficulties Howl's Moving Castle sold out during the last weeks of a 6-week run.
The production was "Time Out"'s Critic's Choice in December and received four-star reviews from "Metro" and "The Public Reviews". Reviews praised the imaginative staging, the ground-breaking and ambitious technical ability of the projections, and the visuals. Despite some mixed reviews the show was received as a production that successfully married film and theatre: "Is it a play, is it a film, is it an installation? No - it's super-theatre!" The show inspired Southwark Playhouse's 2016 production of another story associated with Studio Ghibli, "Kiki's Delivery Service".
Silent Movie.
In 2007 Stroud Valleys Arts Space gave Davy and Kristin permission to create performance work for their annual Site Festival in Stroud. Davy and Kristin thus created and performed "Silent Movie", a multimedia performance that mixes projections and live acting. The plot, which recounts a love story between a couple, is evocative of the silent movie genre from the beginning of the 20th century. The performance is viewed by an audience of 15 people through peep holes made in the front wall of a huge wooden box or a shopping window. In 2008 "Silent Movie" was shown at the Macau Arts Festival in China.
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