tumour ballet

Like spiculated portraits, tumour ballet began with the question of what a tumour looks like from the inside. Working from medical knowledge and imagination, Fletcher developed this ink drawing as a further step in the same inquiry, more concentrated, contained on a single sheet of paper.

In classical ballet, the corps de ballet moves as one. In tumour ballet, Fletcher draws on that language to look at something altogether less coordinated, cells that were once part of the whole, moving now to their own rules. The drawing sits within the monstrosity of tiny tumours body of work, sharing its starting point but arriving somewhere of its own.

Justin Paton, judge of the Parkin Drawing Prize 2024, on tumour ballet:

"Her Tumour Ballet reckons artistically with the experience of breast cancer. These frightening growths dance between the beautiful and the terrible. The patient precision of Fletcher's lines has an emotional payoff: it suggests the control required to calmly picture something that's out to hurt you."

tumour ballet
2024
ink on paper
540x700 mm