‘Reviews for Real’ 

Sacha Lees

enquiries [email protected] 

New Zealand, Aotearoa is a place of unparalleled natural beauty. Every year, billions of dollars are spent promoting New Zealand’s spectacular natural features as ‘once in a lifetime, must see.’ Our glistening coastlines, majestic alpine ranges and lush farmlands are lauded internationally, featuring in major cinematic films. New Zealand endures as a ‘bucket-list’ holiday destination.

When researching on my computer to find ‘the perfect’ Aotearoa spot for a holiday, I stumbled across the Five-Star-Review feature on Google that records opinions of popular destinations. The reviews scrutinise tourist destinations in the same manner we might review a product – a smartwatch, a scented candle, a vacuum cleaner. While sometimes hilarious, the lowest star reviews reflect an attitude towards our natural environment of disposability and entitlement. It reduces our whenua to mere commodity, a space provided solely for our entertainment. Reviewers, worryingly, appear not to care about the environmental, the cultural or historical values of each destination – rather what pleasure they might extract from it.

Discovery of the Google-Five-Star-Review feature caused me to ponder the meaning, power, and significance of these appraisals. It also provided a creative spark.

I digitally illustrated various idyllic tourist destinations, reimagining them as circa-1920’s Tourism New Zealand advertising posters, adopting similar font, layout, and the prevailing style of the time. I searched for the lowest star Google reviews for each destination and set comments – humorous, disparaging, enraged – against each ‘idyllic spot’ to create an idiosyncratic juxtaposition that elevates these promotional placards to a commentary on culture and various attitudes to the environment in a contemporary context.

I hope the result might encourage people to reconsider their relationship with the environment and pay more respect to the cultural or heritage value of each destination.

Sacha Lees is a multi-award-winning Artist based in Wellington, New Zealand. Her commercial work features on celluloid, in publications, on stamps and coins. Sacha’s Fine Art is held in prestigious collections world-wide and can be found in leading New Zealand galleries.

We are pleased to invite you and your guests to ‘The Secret Keeper’

Catherine Daniels’ story of childhood trauma

A special thanks to Chris and Kathy Parkin for their wonderful support!

This exhibition is about my childhood trauma and sexual abuse. It wasn’t until I was nearly 50 that I realised my secrets had made me sick. As I started to un fold the layers of history through words, many of them in metaphorical form, I joined a writers’ group which supported me in my journey through the complexities of understanding my own mental health issues.

One day I couldn’t write so I decided to make a sculpture to portray what I couldn’t say in words. That day, ‘The Secret Keeper’ was born. Over the last five years I have created 49 sculptures to portray the emotions I could never verbalise out loud. I have also written and published a book of metaphors called “The Secret Keeper” which will be for sale at the exhibition.

I commissioned multi award winning photographer Esther Bunning to portray the visual imagery within the book so the reader feels and senses the disassociation often attached with childhood trauma. We have produced a range of large canvases and metal prints that are available as artworks for sale which has brought another important facet to this project. I have a storytelling video by Terry Wreford Hann showing the sculptures and incorporating words from the book and some footage of me creating the sculptures. This gives the viewer an inside look at how the sculptures have been created.

The never-ending cycle needs to be broken