Secret life of Gerald: the New Zealand MP who spent a lifetime crafting a vast imaginary world – The Guardian

Gerald OBrien lived a very public life he was a New Zealand MP, anti-war activist and president of the World Peace Council, but not even those closest to him knew of his secret, all-consuming lifelong art project, which resulted in a vast and complex imaginary world.

Hidden in the late politicians basement were OBriens hand-painted and written imaginings, obsessively created from the time he was a toddler through to his years in parliament and beyond.

Until OBriens family began clearing out his Wellington house after his death in 2017, his intricate work had been concealed from the world including his wife of 60 years, Fausta.

The whole thing is a mystery and nobody knew anything about it, his nephew Lucien Rizos tells The Guardian. How complete a picture he created overall, from such an early age, is sort of incomprehensible.

Inside the many chaotic drawers and boxes of OBriens basement, Rizos unearthed cut-outs of 700 or more characters, all meticulously painted, with individual outfits and facial features.

Each were given names or titles some, such as King Charles III of Escotia and Fidel Bistro, were influenced by the real world; others, including H.R.H Prince Jupiter Squashyspeck and Katesmart Bigglesbum, were more inventive. As OBrien aged, so too did his project, and while his style retained an artistic consistency, his rendering became more sophisticated and the stories more elaborate.

The continuation of the magnificent illustrations go way into his adulthood, Rizos says, something written on the back in 1974 would then be crossed out in 1993 so he was still referring to these figures.

OBrien also created maps of fictional countries such as Escotia, Andamia and Gaston; copious hand-written newspapers reporting events, with communiqus over battles, politics and monarchies; history books recording major occasions, and lists of army personnel and administrative leaders that would undergo revisions as the wars and elections of a state evolved.

OBrien was born in Wellington in 1924 and grew up in a world blighted by war. Unsurprisingly, his imaginary world was heavily focused on battles and armies, but he later became an ardent pacifist and vocal critic of the Vietnam war. He held many roles during his long life he had been a radar operator in the airforce, a businessman, a city councillor, a politician, and eventually the president of the World Peace Council.

He was a man of many interests and talents, Rizos notes, and was, from an early age, enamoured of politics. He joined the Labour party in his early 20s and in 1969 was elected to parliament as the MP for Wellingtons Island Bay electorate a position he held until 1978.

Rizos spent an enormous amount of time with OBrien during his final years, discussing his life and the decisions that led to his career in politics. At one point, OBrien mentioned to Rizos a comic book character he had encountered as a child called Geraldi Rebel of the Hills a sort of cowboy Robin Hood who set him on the path of wanting to do good and getting into politics.

Later, when Rizos was sifting through the secret cut-out figurines, he came across one that looked uncannily like his uncle, named Anthony Geraldi Rebelly.

I talked to him for a year about all sorts of things, but [the imaginary world] never came up and it pisses me off that I didnt know, he says. He didnt say knowing he was dying youre going to find this.

OBrien and Fausta, who now lives in full-time care after she suffered a significant stroke following her husbands death, were like parents to Rizos. OBrien was a giant and highly cultured, responsible for introducing Rizos to music, art and books. Rizos, who last year retired as a violinist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra after 46 years, is also a documentary photographer. So, when he came across the copious documents, paintings and booklets, in OBriens home, he felt compelled to preserve them.

As the country went into lockdown, he began the arduous task of scanning every single piece of paper he could find. Two-and-a-half years later, he had a collection of 65 booklets compiled into a catalogue titled Everything.

The catalogue is separated into three categories OBriens imagined world, his political life including details of the political scandals that shook his career, and finally his more general public life, including letters, business cards and photographs and will be exhibited for the first time in October at Victoria University of Wellingtons Adam Art Gallery.

I see it as a very human project, Rizos says of his uncles collection. This is humanity and all its faults as well.

Rizos is reluctant to theorise why OBrien created his imaginary hidden world, but believes he was ambivalent about it staying hidden after his death. Knowing he was dying from Parkinsons disease, OBrien asked Rizos to buy him a shredding machine to get rid of everything that he didnt want anybody to read. Had he wanted his imagined world destroyed, he would have requested it, Rizos concludes.

The catalogue could be viewed as a continuation of OBriens unfulfilled dream of writing an autobiography, while also preserving an interesting piece of New Zealand history, Rizos says.

Ultimately, however, it is a grieving nephews solitary labour of love. I was going back to that house again and again, reliving memories while it was empty for two years and I think grief sustained the effort, he says.

But it couldnt have been done without the gift, the treasure he left me, to get to grips with who he was. It almost feels like a message from the grave.

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Secret life of Gerald: the New Zealand MP who spent a lifetime crafting a vast imaginary world - The Guardian