Ascendance by Studio McGuire
A world premiere for Bristol Light Festival, Ascendance is a life-sized projection of an astronaut drifting through a cosmos of vibrant flowers, butterflies and wistful hallucinations. This interstellar installation is a serene space to sit and contemplate the fragility and fleeting nature of human existence, with a soundtrack composed by Spesh Maloney.
Davy & Kristin McGuire are multi-award-winning mixed reality artists, internationally renowned for their idiosyncratic experiments in digital projection, immersive art and storytelling. The pair wowed at Bristol Light Festival 2023 with their beautifully pensive works, Ophelia and Sirens, and have worked with luxury brands including Dior, Barneys and most recently, SAKS on 5th Avenue, New York City, for its renowned Christmas window installation for 2023.
Artists Davy and Kristin McGuire said:
“We are delighted to be returning to the Bristol Light Festival, which is such an inspiring setting for us to showcase our work. With Ascendance, we wanted to demonstrate how beauty and sorrow can be deeply linked. The astronaut, who is losing oxygen as he floats untethered amongst the stars, is cocooned in a hallucinatory garden creating an exquisite image that contrasts against the stark sadness of his isolation. We are very proud to be unveiling this for the first time in Bristol, a city we called home for a very long time.”