Museum of Melancholy
An Immersive Exhibition of Works by Studio McGuire
Museum of Melancholy is an immersive exhibition curated with our most emotionally resonant works in order to offer an antidote to the current trend of flashy spectacles. In the Museum of Melancholy visitors are invited to engage with the darker side of human emotions. The exhibition can contain the following installations in no particular order:
Ophelia
A show stopping homage to Millais
Financial Times
Striking....Probably the best thing in the show
BBC Radio 4, Saturday Review
‘Ophelia’ is an emotive projection installation in which Shakespeare’s famous character has been recreated as a hologram, elegantly poised during her last breaths in a tranquil water basin. Loop duration 3min.
Sirens
Sirens is a beautiful but haunting display of holographic projections into water featuring uncanny sea creatures and mermaids’ encounter with plastic waste and climate change. Created to signify the impact of climate change and plastic water pollution,‘Sirens’ suggests how even fairy-tale creatures could be affected by the climate crisis. Loop duration 15min.
Bell Jar Fairies
Bell Jar Fairies is a series of tiny ethereal beings, appearing fully alive and fluttering inside illuminated, intricately decorated glass jars. Evoking the spirit of a cabinet of curiosities, each jar is a precious artefact — something preserved and quietly observed.
By combining holographic video mapping with physical displays, these 13 video sculptures merge digital animation with the tangible world. The result is a holographic illusion: tiny, living creatures captured within their own miniature realms — part scientific specimen, part magical relic.
Ascendance
'Ascendance' is a life size holographic projection of an astronaut onto gauze set in a church. Severed from the mothership an astronaut drifts through a poetic cosmos of vibrant flower, fluttering butterflies, and wistful hallucinations, as oxygen level dwindle.
Loop duration 7min.
Grains of Recollection
Grains of Recollection is an installation in which a detailed paper craft diorama is surrounded by hanging VR headsets that allow viewers to step inside a virtual version of the same diorama as tiny observers. Across five poetic scenes situated inside this virtual and physical paper world, the work reveals a woman’s attempt to preserve and gently release memories of a lost loved one.
Vanitas
Vanitas is a series of 10 animated flower still lives that blossom and wilt. Loop duration 1min - 4min.
The Icebook
The Icebook is the world's first projection mapped pop-up book, a show depicting a dark, silent fable through a combination of paper pop-ups, projection mapping and music. It has toured to 57 venues including art festivals, museums, galleries, theaters, conferences and cinemas in 12 countries on 3 continents. More than half a million people have seen the trailer online, and it has featured in a variety of international books, magazines and newspapers including Computer Arts, ELLE and the Guardian.
This work is not a walk-up installation, it is a seated show for 12 people to be watched in its entirety (15min). It needs to be operated by one trained member of staff and it can run every 30min.
About Studio McGuire
‘What follows makes the jaw drop and the head whirl.’ The Times
Davy & Kristin McGuire, directors of Studio McGuire and associates of Ridley Scott Creative Group, are internationally renowned mixed-reality artists renowned for their immersive art, storytelling and digital projections.
Their array of awards includes the Helpmann Award for Best Visual Theatre Production, Innovation of the Year at the Museum and Heritage Awards, the Samuel Beckett Theatre Award, the Japan Space Design Award, and the Ginza Association Division Excellence Award.
Commissioned by international institutions such as The National Gallery of Singapore, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Barbican, UK City of Culture 2017, Canal+, Museums at Night, the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts, London International Mime Festival and the Projection Mapping Association of Japan to name a few, their work has garnered global critical acclaim.
They have created projects for Christian Dior in Shanghai, Kyoto, Tokyo, Seoul and Paris, alongside prestigious installations at Harrods London and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. Their collaborations with luxurious brands include Mikimoto in Tokyo, as well as projects for Courvoisier in France, Barneys New York and Elle China.
Their projects have toured to over 100 venues across 26 countries, with highlights including appearances at SXSW Texas, National Taichung Theatre in Taiwan, Perth International Arts Festival, the Barbican, Wales Millenium Centre, Macau Arts Festival and Hans Christian Andersen Museum among many, many others.
Davy and Kristin's artistic influence extends globally, with their video sculptures showcased and available for acquisition at international art fairs and galleries such as Woolff Gallery London, Wanrooij Gallery Amsterdam, Muriel Guepin Gallery New York, and CJS Gallery Amsterdam.
Drawing on Davy’s background in theatre and Kristin’s career as a dancer for Cirque du Soleil and many other international companies, the couple love merging physical and digital worlds into beautiful immersive experiences.
‘Magical and exquisitely crafted, Davy and Kristin McGuire's universe is full of visual wonders.’ The Guardian
