Nela Fletcher

REAR WINDOW PROGRAMME

Nela Fletcher explores how the body occupies and interacts with space as it shifts between subject, medium, and catalyst. The Swiss-born artist, currently based in Hangzhou, China, was previously located in Invercargill, where the material for Playground Rebel was filmed. Playgrounds are ubiquitous features across urban landscapes, conventionally seen as sites for children’s play. The artist reconfigures and enlivens the space by conducting her own frieze-like choreography among the equipment and objects, where angles, orientation, and staged poses negotiate the contours and scaffolding of the architecture. This idiosyncratic performance embodies resistance, mobilised to recontextualise and reinvent understandings of public places and urban environments.

Movement is central to Fletcher’s practice, which traverses drawing, film, and photography. A former professional choreographer and dancer, her artwork engages the body through both physical and psychological lenses, allowing viewers to contemplate the possibilities and limitations of the human form.