Yvonne Hennessy (Ireland)
1 – Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
Yvonne Hennessy
Yvonne Hennessy is an animation practitioner and lecturer, teaching at Athlone Institute of Technology on the BA (hons) in Animation & Illustration. She is currently researching a PhD. Her research interests include: women in animation; animation as Irish heritage; animation as modernist arts practice and animation as a gendered territory. Hennessy has 17 years’ animation industry experience, working on all aspects of animation production from pre-vis to post-production and VFX on international television series and feature films. Hennessy is also a fine artist who specialises in installation, abstract expressionist drawings and moving image.
Abstract
This paper will investigate the culture of neglect surrounding female animation artists in Ireland on grounds of gender and the lacuna that exists regarding animation as a modernist artistic practice. Due to Ireland’s geographical position and the culture of emigration that prevailed in the early part of the twentieth century, it is the proposition of this paper that Irish female modernist painters pursued animation as an extension of their artistic practice, a fact that has thus far been ignored in Irish animation scholarship leading to the gendered segregation of histories and exclusion of artwork on grounds of gender. This has led to a considerable tranche of undocumented Irish animation history, particularly omitting the role of women artists, spanning 50 years where animation was flourishing as industry and as artistic practice globally. My paper seeks to remedy this occlusion and situate Irish animation at the vanguard of women’s modernist artistic practice. The paper will discuss Irish modernist painter Marion King as a pioneer of Irish animation. By focusing on her thus-far undocumented biography, artistic accomplishments and patented painting techniques, I will present King as the foremother of Irish animation and reclaim the space in Irish animation history for female artists.
Palavras-chave: Women, Gender, Ireland, Modernism, Animation
