Art And Medicine Collide In Fundraising Exhibition

What do you get when you cross an award-winning artist with a Southland pioneer of breast cancer care? An art exhibition designed to inspire, encourage, and raise funds for your local Cancer Society!

Artist Nela Fletcher’s thought-provoking exhibition Monstrosity of Tiny Tumours opens this Friday, 27 September at Art Attic Gallery in Invercargill, with the proceeds from artworks sold going to the Otago & Southland Cancer Society.

The exhibition features artworks exploring Mrs Fletcher’s personal journey of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

More than pictures on walls, Mrs Fletcher has added key talks with retired general surgeon Mr Murray Pfeifer to the Monstrosity of Tiny Tumours programme, offering a chance for everyone to learn and engage about an illness that 3500 New Zealanders are diagnosed with every year.

An important part of Mrs Fletchers’ battle against invasive breast cancer was her connection with Mr Pfeifer, who acted as “translator” for Mrs Fletcher and her family when she was first diagnosed in 2022.

“Murray has been a strong figure on our journey, and I say ‘our journey’ because it affects your whole family,” she said.

“Murray is a family friend, and we asked to be able to talk to him after we saw the specialist. When you hear news like that, your head is spinning, so it was really helpful to have an hour here and there with Murray for him to explain the process and be a translator.”

Mr Pfeifer, who retired in 2020 after working as a General Surgeon at Southland Hospital for 40 years, said his support for Mrs Fletcher and her family was about “empowering” them to be able to make decisions, not necessarily about “giving advice”.

Part of their special friendship meant when Mrs Fletcher wanted to understand what her tumours looked like, she sat down with Mr Pfeifer, who was able to describe them in detail, and in a way she could understand.

“It was part of my space of reflection, and I guess digestion, of what was happening in my body,” Mrs Fletcher said.

Mr Pfeifer was stunned by what Mrs Fletcher created: “The first thing I was struck by when I first saw these artworks was how much they really looked like the microstructures of a tumour, but they were almost sort of personalised - that was amazing,” he said.

“I haven’t got an artistic bone in my body, but I really understand and appreciate what Nela is doing. It’s part of her journey, but it’s a creative, constructive part. That’s what excites me about it. I’ve never encountered anybody who wanted to create art from their cancer.”

While Mrs Fletcher underwent treatment and worked on her art, the idea for an exhibition began to take shape. Monstrosity of Tiny Tumours deals with three questions: What does breast cancer look like? How do you face what you can’t see? Can knowledge soften the blow?

“I wanted to see if my journey could be beneficial for others in the community, too. To create a safe space to talk about and deal with the topic. Often, you are given a book about breast cancer, or you can go to support groups. But those things didn’t resonate with me - so maybe art can be a translator, a connector for those topics.”

Mrs Fletcher is quick to point out that her art is accessible to everyone.

“There will be works available for ‘any wallet’ - so you can purchase a postcard featuring my art, and still donate to the Cancer Society,” she said. This has been made possible thanks to the local businesses which have sponsored Mrs Fletcher’s mission to make the exhibition happen, and to be able to ‘give back’ to the community.

Monstrosity of Tiny Tumours includes ink on paper artworks, photography, video, and of course the key talks with Mrs Fletcher and Mr Pfeifer. The pair will share their experiences in an “artist talk with medical perspectives” at the Gallery on 12 October, and a curated talk “Pink Pathways - the road to early detection in Southland” at the Cancer Society on 16 October.

The exhibition runs from 27 September to 19 October. A full programme of events can be found at www.nelafletcher.com/dates

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