Robyn E. Kenealy
Robyn E. Kenealy is a creator and organiser in the New Zealand art and comics communities[citation needed]. She is based in Wellington, and is most notable for her role in establishing the 91 Aro St Gallery[citation needed], organising the New Zealand Comics Weekend[1] and the recent Eric Awards.[2] Kenealy's early works (the Influenza mini-comics) were dominantly autobiographical comics. Her recent work Roddy's Film Companion (a biography of the film actor Roddy McDowall) marks a distinct shift from this style. Although Roddy's Film Companion is biographical, it is also fictional and frequently acknowledges the limitations of 'truth' and 'fact' in historical research.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Kenealy is a Wellington based comic book artist. She also, "...plays guitar and banjo, makes conceptual art, dabbles in painting and haiku and has written the odd short story."
[edit] Roddy's Film Companion
For the last three years Kenealy has been working on Roddy's Film Companion, a semi-fictional/biographical comic about the life of the actor Roddy McDowall, whose most well-known role was playing Cornelius in Planet of the Apes (1968 film). Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Joseph Mankiewicz and Darryl Zanuck also feature in the comics. However, Roddy's Film Companion is not so much concerned with presenting an accurate portrait of Roddy McDowall's life, but rather with interrogating the limits of 'truth' and 'reality' in biographies through fictionalization. As Kenealy writes on her website, "Roddy's Film Companion is a one half semi-fictional biography comic of child star cum character actor Roddy McDowall (whom you might remember from such films as How Green Was My Valley (film) and Planet of the Apes) and one half a musing on the phenomenon of celebrity itself, as applied to both author and subject."[3] The first issue, released in 2006, is set while Roddy was filming the Darryl Zanuck production of Cleopatra (1963 film). In late 2008 she started uploading Roddy's Film Companion to the internet. Issue 1 is now available on-line.
[edit] Wellington Indie Arts Scene
Over the last decade Kenealy and her husband Richard (Dick) Whyte have curating the ongoing art collection The Wayfarer Gallery based in Wellington's Wayfarer Library, archiving Wellington experimental art. It currently own more than 200 works from artists such as Rick Jensen, GCR, Brent Willis, Tao Welles, Mark Whyte, Smiley, Sam Stephens (and many others).[4] In 2004 they collaborated with others to open the 91 Aro St Gallery, another Wellington outlet for independent arts.[5] 91 Aro St sold and exhibited comics, tapes, CDs, books, films, paintings, photographs, pictures, glass work from experimental artists in and around Wellington, New Zealand. It was open for twelve months while they held the lease on the premises and had more than 20 exhibitions. Kenealy also appeared in Elric Kane and Alexander Greenhough's 2004 independent feature film Murmurs, set in a bohemian Wellington subculture.[6]
[edit] On the National Scene
It was during 2005 that 91 Aro St was the venue for the first New Zealand Comics Weekend, a weekend devoted to the exhibition and celebration of New Zealand comics.[5] Since then Kenealy has been the major organiser of this event in 2006[1] and contributed to the 2007 event, organised by cartoonists DRAW and Tim Bollinger.[7] The 2006 event also included the Eric Awards, an independently judged New Zealand comic awards. Robyn and Dick hosted the event, which also featured stand-up comedian Darren Schroeder as the MC.[8] In 2010 Kenealy organized the 5th New Zealand Comics Weekend at The Basement Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand (with the help of DRAW, Claire Harris and Tim Bollinger).[9]
[edit] Comics
- Influenza In Wellington issues 1-4
- Love Ain't Easy parts one and two
- Roddy's Film Companion, about child and adult star Roddy McDowall
[edit] Exhibitions
- Rubbernek 2, group exhibition at Enjoy Gallery 2001
- Wayfarer Presents, group exhibition at Enjoy Gallery, 2002
- Spring, installation piece at 91 Aro Street, 23 Aug - 6 Sept 2005
- Wellington Comics Exhibition at Mezzo Gallery, 15–29 April 2005
- Bottled (s)Words/W.Art, DAF 106 Gallery, 2008
- I like sex and I’m a girl, DAF 106 Gallery, 2008
- EGO, DAF 106 Gallery, 2009
[edit] Acknowledgements
Robyn featured in the 2004 Toby Donald and Dick Whyte documentary, Boys Suck: Throw Rocks at Them first screened at the New Zealand Comics Weekend at 91 Aro St Gallery, later to be released on DVD. The documentary followed Robyn and fellow comic artist G.C.R. to the Eric Awards in 2004. This film is considered part of the Aro Valley film movement. She was also interviewed by Shirley Horrocks in her documentary The Comics Show, screened at the New Zealand Film Festival in 2007.
Kenealy won the award for the best cartoon in the 2009 A.S.P.A. awards (Aotearoa Student Press Association) with The Darkroom weekly serial (a backstory to "Roddy's Film Companion") which has been appearing in Salient Magazine for the last year. Dylan Horrocks, one of the judges, wrote that Kenealy's comics have "all kinds of smarts going on just below the surface."[10] Tim Bollinger, in a recent review, wrote that The Darkroom has "smart conversational language and pen-and-ink-wash visual narrative."[11]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Salient Article on Comics Weekend 2006". Salient Magazine. http://www.salient.org.nz/news/calling-all-geeks%E2%80%A6. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
- ^ "History of the Eric Awards". Kiwi Comics Website. http://www.comics.org.nz/wiki/index.php?title=Eric_Awards. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
- ^ "Roddy's Film Companion". http://www.wayfarergallery.net/roddysfilmcompanion/. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Wayfarer Gallery". http://www.wayfarergallery.net/wayfarergallery/. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ a b "Aro Street Archive". http://postmoderncore.com/aroarts/. Retrieved 2009-02-18.[dead link]
- ^ "Qualia Films". Qualia Films. http://qualiafilms.com/murmurs/cast-crew.html. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
- ^ "New Zealand Comics Weekend on TV3". TV3. http://www.tv3.co.nz/default.aspx?tabid=112&articleID=25484#vidlist25484. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
- ^ "New Zealand Comics Weekend 2006". Isaac Freeman Livejournal. http://isaacfreeman.livejournal.com/205844.html. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
- ^ "A Comical Look at Life". The Wellingtonian. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/the-wellingtonian/3465192/a-comical-look-at-life?title=New_Zealand_Comics_Weekend_2010. Retrieved 2010-05-24.[dead link]
- ^ "2009 ASPA Awards Results". Scoop Independent News. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0909/S00167.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
- ^ "Local Comix Newz". Werewolf. http://werewolf.co.nz/2009/09/reviews-commentary-etc/. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
