From the Jungles of Mexico to Dublin: Bringing Spaik45 and Harry Clarke Back for Day of the Dead
By Joey Baker, co-founder of Solasine and IK-MULUK
Día de Muertos is nearly here again. But before we switch on a single projector this year, we want to write properly about last year.
In November 2025, Solasine and KinMx Art worked with the Embassy of Mexico in Ireland on two Day of the Dead installations in Dublin. The first was an ofrenda, a traditional altar, projection mapped in memory of our friend, the Mexican muralist Spaik, and the Irish stained-glass artist Harry Clarke. The second was an interactive AI installation that turned every visitor who stepped in front of it into a dancing calavera.
Both pieces came from one question. How do you use light and technology to remember our loved ones and re-animate them for a day of rememberence?
The answer started a long way from Dublin, in the Mexican jungle of Quintana Roo.
Spaik, and why this altar was personal
Spaik (@spaik45) was a Mexican muralist and street artist. His walls are full of alebrije-style animals: serpents, jaguars, wolves and birds, in colour so loud it seems to move on its own, carrying the symbols of pre-Hispanic Mexico. You can find his murals in Mexico, the United States, Europe and beyond.
To us he was also a friend, and a pivotal part of IK-MULUK, the off-grid artist residency that Kathrina Rupit (KinMx) and I founded in the Mexican jungle. Spaik ran the local art gallery in Mexico 'Tulum Art Forum' He brought energy and generosity, and a belief that art belongs to whoever walks past it. From this location art workshops and events would spill into the streets of tulum bonding together tattoo artists, muralists, builders and performers alike.
Link to Tulum Art Forum
Through the residency exchange between IK-MULUK and Phase Space Arts, with the support of the Embassy of Mexico in Ireland, Spaik came to Ireland and showed his work in several exhibitions here. One was Sangre Mextiza at the Mexican Embassy in Dublin, alongside KinMx and Cix (Antonio Triana). Irish audiences got to stand in front of paintings like his Torito and meet the man who made them.
When we lost Spaik, building him an ofrenda in Dublin, where his work had found a second home, felt like the right way to welcome him back.
IK-MULUK: an off-grid art centre built with 18 tonnes of sugar cane bagasse
IK-MULUK is an artist-led residency and research centre in the Mexican rainforest. It runs off-grid, and it is built with bio-based materials, including 18 tonnes of sugar cane bagasse. Bagasse is the dry fibre left over once sugar cane has been crushed for its juice. Most of it is burned or thrown away. At IK-MULUK, it became a building material.
Building in the jungle without a grid connection changes how you think about technology. Every watt has to come from somewhere, every tool has to earn its place, and nothing gets thrown away if it can be used again. Artists at IK-MULUK work the same way: local materials, natural pigments, low waste, and making things work with what’s to hand.
That way of working is what we have tried to bring home to Ireland. Sustainable, low-waste practice is at the front of every project we take on at Solasine, from the materials we choose to the hardware we keep in use.
Link to IK Muluk Art Residency Mexico
Phase Space Arts: the Irish side of the bridge
The Irish half of the exchange was Phase Space Arts, a community-run gallery founded by Solasine director Conan Wynne. Phase Space was where the residency landed in Ireland: a space for exhibitions, interactive art, projection and new media, run by and for the local arts community. Artists arriving from IK-MULUK could show work there, meet Irish artists and try new ideas in public.
Phase Space Arts no longer exists as a gallery, but it never really ended. It phased into Solasine Labs, and the same mix of art, interactive technology and community still drives everything we make.
Link to Phase Space Arts
Installation one: an ofrenda for Spaik and Harry Clarke
Why Harry Clarke? Clarke (1889–1931) is one of Ireland’s greatest artists. He is known for his stained glass in the Honan Chapel in Cork and at Bewley’s on Grafton Street, and for his dark, beautiful illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe. Like Spaik, he died young, and like Spaik, his work is full of saints, spirits and strange creatures. Putting them on one altar turned the ofrenda into a conversation between Mexico and Ireland, two countries that have never been shy about honouring their dead.
How we made it
Modelling the room. Before anything was installed, we built 3D models of the embassy room and the altar’s tiers in SketchUp. That let us plan projector positions and design the animation to fit.
3D offerings. We modelled traditional offerings, including marigolds, copal, corn and cacao pods, for the animated layers.
Scanning and mapping. On site, we scanned the finished altar with Lightform and mapped the animation onto every tier, frame and offering. The light fits the altar instead of washing over it.
Animating their art. We used our whole creative suit available to bring Spaik’s paintings and Harry Clarke’s stained glass and ink drawings in motion. Clarke’s saints glow over the portraits, Spaik’s birds take flight, his serpent coils across the altar and his painted wolf turns to face the room. The file names on my drive still show Harry Clarke’s stained glass rendering at 1 a.m. on 31 October.
Installation two: an AI mirror that turns visitors into calaveras
We set up a Kinect depth sensor and a camera facing a large projection wall. As people walked in, TouchDesigner tracked their bodies, and a real-time AI model (StreamDiffusion) repainted them as calaveras, live, as they moved: catrina face paint, flowers in their hair, skull faces and skeleton bodies. On the wall, every visitor became a life-size skeleton at their own Día de Muertos party, surrounded by the papel picado and marigolds of the room. Once people saw their skeleton copying them, they started to dance.
It is the oldest idea in Day of the Dead, the living and the dead sharing one party, done with a depth sensor and a graphics card.
Microsoft stopped making the Kinect years ago, but it is still one of the best body-tracking sensors for interactive art. Keeping old hardware working is the same habit IK-MULUK taught us: Re-use what you have before you buy something new.
Where AI fits in our work
If you’ve read our post on the GPO projection for Dublin Winter Lights, you’ll know we made that piece without any generative AI. So it’s fair to explain where AI sat in this project.
Here, AI had one narrow job, to feed data from viewers back at themselves through a digitalised mirror. The mirror ran live, turning visitors into calaveras in real time, which no animator could do by hand. The heart of the event was not this mirror but the whole immersive room guided by Spaik’s paintings and Clarke’s glass and drawings, In both cases, the people and the art came first and the technology served them.
From the jungle to the streets of Dublin
The same people who built a residency out of sugar cane waste in the jungle are now putting light on buildings in Dublin. The technology has changed a lot along the way. The thinking hasn’t.
At IK-MULUK, technology has to be light, repairable and worth the energy it uses. In Dublin, that means projection instead of printed sets, because light leaves nothing behind for landfill when the show ends. It means reusing sensors and projectors from one project to the next. And it means building interactive art that brings people together around culture, not just around a screen.
A lasting bridge between Mexico and Ireland
None of this happens without the Embassy of Mexico in Ireland. The embassy supported the residency exchange between IK-MULUK and Phase Space Arts, hosted Sangre Mextiza, and opened its doors to us again for Día de Muertos.
What came out of it is bigger than any single show: a working, two-way exchange of artists, ideas and techniques between Mexico and Ireland. Day of the Dead 2025 brought that exchange full circle. An artist who first showed his work in Dublin through the residency was remembered in Dublin by the same people who brought him here.
Gracias, Spaik. Te seguimos pintando.
Day of the Dead Dublin: frequently asked questions
What were the Day of the Dead installations at the Mexican Embassy in Ireland?
Two installations by Solasine and KinMx Art for Día de Muertos 2025 in Dublin. The first was a projection-mapped ofrenda honouring Mexican muralist Spaik and Irish stained-glass artist Harry Clarke. The second was an interactive AI installation that turned visitors into dancing calaveras in real time.
Who was Spaik?
Spaik (@spaik45) was a Mexican muralist and street artist known for colourful alebrije-style animals and pre-Hispanic symbolism. He was a key part of the IK-MULUK residency and exhibited in Ireland through the Mexico–Ireland artist exchange.
What is IK-MULUK?
An off-grid, artist-led residency and research centre in the Mexican rainforest, founded by Kathrina Rupit (KinMx) and Joey Baker. It is built with bio-based materials, including 18 tonnes of sugar cane bagasse.
What was Phase Space Arts?
A community-run gallery and interactive art space in Ireland, founded by Solasine director Conan Wynne. It hosted the Irish side of the residency exchange with IK-MULUK and has since phased into Solasine Labs.
How did the AI skeleton installation work?
A Kinect depth sensor and a camera fed TouchDesigner, which tracked each visitor’s body. A real-time AI model, StreamDiffusion, then repainted them as calaveras and skeletons, projected life-size on the wall as they moved.
Can Solasine make an installation for our event?
Yes. We design projection mapping, interactive installations and immersive experiences for cultural institutions, embassies, festivals and brands, in Ireland and abroad. Get in touch at info@solasine.com.
Links: Spaik · KinMx Art and IK-MULUK · Embassy of Mexico in Ireland · Phase Space · Tulum Art Forum
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