In Pictures: Artist transforms one-star reviews of Scots landmarks into prints

A Scottish creator is turning “ludicrous” one-star reviews of Scottish attractions and monuments into art as part of a new collection.

Stewart Bremner, who runs the Indy Prints online store, was inspired to highlight Scotland’s beauty by poking fun at it after a “ridiculous” review of Ben Nevis went viral earlier this year.

The Tripadvisor review, titled “Very Steep and Too High”, caught the attention of social media after its author complained about the lack of a pub, restaurant or toilets at the peak.

“Someone said you should make something of this,” said Bremner. “I didn’t quite know what to think about it at first – I thought it was funny. But then I realised I have drawn now 79 different landscapes over the last five years.”

The artist, who has been running Indy Prints since 2014, said if there was a one-star review of Ben Nevis, there’s likely to be “bad or weird” reviews of other Scots locations.

Bremner was immediately taken with the “hilarious misguided” reviews.

“The people that have written them have so completely failed to understand what they’re going to see. They’re quite funny,” he said. “And I just thought it would be nice to combine ludicrous misunderstands with a kind of classic travel poster style that I’ve been using.”

The Overrated Scotland collection now consists of 14 beautifully illustrated prints of the iconic locations alongside bizarre takes on what they have to offer. The quotes aren’t lifted directly from review sites, Bremner says, but they are pretty close to their original forms.

Examples of the pieces include a dramatic drawing of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum alongside the review: “As if they received a random set of objects and tried to make a museum out of it.”

“That’s hilarious because that’s what a museum is,” the artist joked.

Another favourite, Bremner said, was the print of Ring of Brodgar – which shows the historic formation along with the review: “Not sure what they are about but they looked impressive for stones.”

The artist denied that the pieces show Scotland in a negative light.

“I think you can tell that they’re not putting Scotland down, they’re actually sharing that some people don’t understand what they’ve gone to see,” he said. “And by reading it, it gives you an appreciation – you go ‘of course it’s not that’.

“So it kind of pushes somebody into having the opposite reaction.”

Bremner went on: “In Scotland we do kind of like to celebrate our crapness. We’re like ‘yes, we’re so s***’ – that kind of attitude.”

He hopes the latest collection will appeal to art lovers with a bit of a “miserable mind”.

The full collection can be found here.