Vinterlys Denmark 2027
Proposal of Works by Studio McGuire
1. Ophelia
‘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.
A show stopping homage to Millais
Financial Times
Striking....Probably the best thing in the show
BBC Radio 4, Saturday Review
2. Sirens
Sirens is a beautiful but haunting display of holographic projections into water featuring uncanny sea creatures and mermaids’ encounter with plastic waste. Created to signify the impact of plastic water pollution,‘Sirens’ suggests how even fairy-tale creatures could be affected by the climate crisis. Loop duration 15min.
3. Nefairyous
Nefairyous will be a new installation inspired by two of our previous works - Bell Jar Fairies and Pocket Sized People.
Nefairyous imagines a society of woodland fairies living amongst the traces humanity leaves behind. Discarded litter becomes part of their miniature world: repurposed as tools, transformed into games, mistaken for treasures or hazards threatening fairy life. Through these encounters, the fairies mirror human behaviour—human curiosity, ingenuity, greed, pettiness and excess.
The combined effect is intended to be immersive but quiet, playful but uneasy, beautiful but gritty and magical but critical.
Bell Jar Fairies
Pocket Sized People
Bell Jar Fairies is a series of tiny ethereal beings, appearing fully alive and fluttering inside illuminated, intricately decorated glass jars. Drawing on the uneasy logic of the cabinet of curiosities, each jar becomes both artefact and enclosure — preserving, displaying and confining its inhabitant.
Pocket Sized People is a public installation featuring holographic projections of 15cm characters inventively making use of everyday human waste. In a world where children’s sandpits become holiday resorts, a single French fry is a family meal and a small swarm of flies becomes a deadly stampede, these mischievous mini men survive, strive and thrive.
In a series of 5 holographic projection mapping interventions Nefarious will be staged throughout the forest using small transparent gauzes suspended between trees and branches. The fairies never speak; instead, all narratives are conveyed through projection mapped interactions with physical objects.
Potential Scenes
The Laundry Line:
A fairy hangs discarded damp wet wipes along a makeshift washing line strung between branches. The scene becomes a domestic ritual—attempting cleanliness and order amongst waste and decay.
The Leftover Meal:
Fairies salvage a discarded fast food picnic. Using scrapped matches piled into a tiny bonfire source, they construct a miniature barbecue, attempting to reheat and share leftover fries in a cosy midnight BBQ.
The Hanging Bag:
A discarded dog waste bag hangs from a branch like an unnatural fruit. A fairy attempts to defend the area by shooting at the swarms of flies around the smelly bag, treating the object as both threat and nuisance.
The Tooth Treasury:
A tooth fairy hovers above mound of collected teeth gathered from both humans and woodland animals. The fairy inspects each one before adding it to the growing pile. The scene remains ambiguous with the tooth collection simultaneously macabre and precious.
The Feast of Excess:
A cluster of fairies hovers around discarded crisp packets and chocolate wrappers. One fairy has become sick and overweight from overconsumption and floats sluggishly near the ground, unable to rejoin flight.
The Stoned Grove:
Among cigarette butts, joint butts and suggestive empty mini plastic bags, a lone fairy drifts in a slowed, dreamlike state. Its movement is heavy and detached, suggesting intoxication, relaxation or fatigue.
The Straw Orchestra:
A group of fairies discovers discarded plastic straws and transforms them into musical instruments. They perform an improvised forest panpipe ensemble.
The Hunter’s Perch:
A fairy hunter hovers behind a branch, aiming a rifle at small projected birds. Some birds lie still on the forest floor.
The Sweet Dispute:
Two fairies hover mid-air, tugging at opposite ends of a wrapped sweet above a pile of sweet wrappers. Their struggle is comedic and unresolved, emphasising desire, greed, and playful conflict.
The Worthless Prize:
Two male fairies hover in mid-air, each gripping opposite ends of a discarded banknote in a tug of war. Their struggle grows until the note suddenly tears in half. Both fairies drift backwards clutching their separate pieces in triumph, only to realise they have gained nothing.
The Neighbours:
Two female fairies are hovering above their wooden fairy doors stuck onto tree trunks. Rather than depicting a cute idyllic fairy world the neighbours are seen arguing and gesturing insults at each other.
The Competitive Can:
Two teenage fairies are hovering above discarded soft drink cans, turning them into absurd sports targets by trying to urinate into their openings. (Their backs face the audience.) Their behaviour escalates into a mischievous competition, echoing human bravado and adolescent playfulness.
Artistic Intent
The fairies act as vessels to mirror humanity without moralising. Fairies are like tiny humans—sometimes kind, sometimes petty, sometimes inventive, sometimes destructive. The work invites audiences to laugh or be enchanted at first, but then perhaps reflect on the strange legacy we leave within natural environments.
Audience Experience
Visitors move through the forest at night encountering different locations in no particular order. They construct meaning through accumulation rather than sequence. Playful, magical, critical and quietly unsettling, the work invites visitors to see familiar woodland litter through the eyes of another species.
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 working across immersive installation, projection, sculpture and storytelling. Their work creates dreamlike, mythological worlds where beauty and wonder are quietly interrupted by themes of mortality, melancholy and neglect. Drawing on the visual language of fairytales, theatre and sacred imagery, their installations often blur fantasy and reality — inviting audiences into seductive environments that become emotionally and psychologically unsettling. The McGuires' works are known for provoking profound emotional responses, sometimes moving audiences to tears.
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, 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 luxury brands also include Mikimoto in Tokyo, Courvoisier in France, Barneys New York and Elle China.
Their projects have toured to over 100 venues across 26 countries, with highlights including SXSW Texas, National Taichung Theatre in Taiwan, Perth International Arts Festival, the Barbican, Wales Millennium Centre, Macau Arts Festival and the Hans Christian Andersen Museum among many others.
Davy and Kristin’s video sculptures have been exhibited and acquired internationally through galleries and art fairs including Woolff Gallery London, Wanrooij Gallery Amsterdam, Muriel Guépin 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 other international companies, the pair merge physical and digital worlds into emotionally charged immersive experiences that sit between installation art, cinematic illusion and contemporary fable.
‘Magical and exquisitely crafted, Davy and Kristin McGuire's universe is full of visual wonders.’ The Guardian
