ANNA PEARSON

BEHIND THE SECRET: Josephine Cachemaille and her exhibition at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.

Ask, believe and you will receive. The universe will provide. Right?

"It's a really seductive idea," says Nelson artist and psychology graduate Josephine Cachemaille.

But she thinks it's rubbish.

Cachemaille uses words like "abhorrent", "sinister" and "brutal" to describe many self-help books like Rhonda Byrne's The Secret and The Power.

Anxiety has been a subject central to her work for many years, and Recover, in a gallery space at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, is no different.

Cachemaille is interested in the field of positive psychology and its infiltration into mainstream Western society, due to rising levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

She is interested in the self-help industry and the popularity of "quasi-scientific healing practices" such as those offered in Byrne's books.

"What the books get you to do really sets you up to fail. What's happening is people are completely disengaged from their community and they are focusing entirely on themselves and what they want. It's like Destiny Church's focus on wealth enhancement," she says.

The exhibition at NMIT features a room of "visualisation props", two universes and other found objects, which Cachemaille hopes will encourage people to see both sides of the approach encouraged by Byrne's books.

Cachemaille says Byrne's approach suggests that if we think positively, we will attract positive things – or vice versa.

"I am interested in the seductive nature of these approaches, the sinister implications they may pose and the purposes they serve," she says.

But while Cachemaille is wary of The Secret's approach, she says there is a lot of empirical evidence that proves other strategies do promote positivity – like forming relationships and engaging with people in your community.

"I think that mostly people need other people and need to feel valued and understood. It's really simple stuff."

• Recover by Josephine Cachemaille runs until December 16 at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Arts and Media building in Nile St.

- Nelson

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