Moana Lee
Practice: Lens-based art, photography, and experimental image-making
Moana Lee is a lens-based artist whose work explores the relationships between people, water, and the wider environment. Working primarily with photography and experimental techniques, she creates images that trace ecological, cultural, and spiritual connections to specific places.
Her practice often involves natural photography alongside alternative photographic processes. A key part of her work is the creation of phytograms: camera-less images made by placing plant material directly onto light-sensitive surfaces and developing them using fresh and salt waters from rivers. These works emerge from direct contact with local environments and speak to the living qualities of water, plant life, and land.
Moana has exhibited widely in Christchurch and across Waitaha Canterbury. Her art is deeply rooted in this region’s whenua and often responds to local rivers and catchments, including the Pūharakekenui Styx River. Through her imagery, she reflects on memory, place, and environmental stewardship, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships with the landscapes that sustain them.
Selected Exhibitions
Confluence (2025) – Ilex Events Space, Christchurch Botanic Gardens
Confluence formed part of the Styx Living Laboratory Trust’s Creative Communicators Programme. In this exhibition, Moana presented phytograms made with river plants and waters from the Styx River. The works emphasised the interconnectedness of humans, plants, and waterways, capturing traces of plant life and river chemistry directly on the photographic surface. The exhibition created a contemplative space where viewers could reflect on the flow of water through both urban and natural environments.
Legacy Issues (2024) – Ashburton Art Gallery
In Legacy Issues, a group exhibition of lens-based investigations into Waitaha Canterbury whenua, Moana contributed works exploring relationships between land and water. Her images examined how histories, decisions, and environmental changes leave their mark on landscapes and waterways. By focusing on the subtle details of river margins and catchments, she highlighted both the vulnerability and resilience of these environments.
This is to remind you where you came from (2021) – Ilam Campus Gallery
This collaborative exhibition, created with Ellie Waters and Janneth Gil, examined personal narratives and the spaces—both physical and emotional—that shape identity. Moana’s contribution centred on memory, belonging, and the landscapes that hold personal and collective histories. The show wove together past and present, using photography and installation to explore how place can anchor who we are.
Style & Themes
Moana’s work is grounded in photography but often pushes beyond conventional methods:
Uses lens-based photography alongside experimental, camera-less processes such as phytograms
Works closely with fresh and salt waters from local rivers and catchments
Incorporates plant materials and natural development processes into her imagery
Key themes in her practice include:
Ecological relationships between humans, water, and land
Cultural identity and memory, especially as they relate to specific places
The interconnectedness of people and the natural world, viewed through both scientific and poetic lenses
By blending observational photography with experimental techniques, Moana creates artworks that feel both intimate and expansive. Her images ask viewers to slow down, notice subtle details, and reflect on how water shapes memory, identity, and the futures of the environments we share.
Sources and Further reading
Confluence exhibition listings – Ilex Café & Events, Christchurch Botanic Gardens: Humanitix / StayHappening / social media event pages
Legacy Issues: Lens-based Investigations of Waitaha Canterbury Whenua – Ashburton Art Gallery: exhibition page and catalogue
Ilam Campus Gallery – 2021 exhibitions, This is to remind you where you came from: ilamcampusgallery.com
Ilam School of Fine Arts / artist social posts – exhibition announcements for This is to remind you where you came from and related work
Te Whare Hera – a palmful of water exhibition page (artist bio and recent exhibitions list for Moana Lee)
Ellie Waters – Exhibitions page (confirming This is to remind you where you came from details)
