Palmerston North exhibition ‘path to healing’ for sexual abuse victim

Artistic fragments of a childhood filled with trauma and frequent sexual abuse are on display at Square Edge in a bid to encourage others to ask for help.

Catherine Daniels’ experiences were channelled into 49 sculptures and a book, that she hopes will resonate with people and foster conversation.

Daniels purposely created the sculptures with minimal features, to allow her audience to project their own experiences onto them.

They have no hair or facial features, so people can look at them and see themselves looking back.

Each one portrayed a part of her childhood, and the book used metaphors to explain the lingering emotions.

Daniels said this was the story of lots of children who were abused. She made some sculptures life-sized to show this.

“Children this size are abused.”

She was spending each day in the Square Edge Community Arts gallery, talking to visitors and answering questions.

Ninety per cent of people who came in to look at the exhibition had something to say about their own personal journey.

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