John Fletcher

John Fletcher’s studio practice is a combination of intuition and research-lead work across multiple disciplines, including drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and sound. The themes he explores are based around personal and interpersonal narratives rooted in objects and subjects of contemporary culture, with a particular interest in perspectives of professionalism, creative labour, and taste.

Typical of his work is the piece “Corner leaning for ten minutes is ok”, a looming human figure stood in the window of an exhibition space. Made roughly from plaster of paris, wood, and chicken wire, the surface is left rough, with the internal materials protruding through the skin of the figure. Dressed only with a pair of glasses, looking forlornly over the other works on display, the sculpture is both pathetic and unsettling. Included in the solo exhibition Acid Reflux (Boardroom Committee Room, 2024) the figure expressed the show’s themes of being unconvincing, to yourself or others; of being judged, exposed, or ill-fitting; of being aloof or left out.

As a performance artist, he often produces sculptures or objects which play a part in the performance work, be it as set or antagonist. In The Impossible Dream (2018) he built a series of small, helicopter-creature objects out of plastic bottles, battery-powered motors, screws and lollipop sticks. Atop their forms were propellors which, when activated, became animated and attempted to lift the sculptures off the ground. The performance involved singing “The Impossible Dream” (Andy Williams) into the propellors, serenading the sculpture’s attempts at flying. This is a typical performance for Fletcher, who looks to give voice to the underdog, the sidelined, or the flawed character, integrating humour and contradiction to agitate a viewer’s sense of loyalty – their understanding of what is valuable or useless.

John Fletcher is an artist from Leicester, working in Glasgow. He is interested in modes of humour, professionalism, labour, and how they manifest in the world, and its effects on the state of mind. This transpires through different mediums including drawing, sculpture, sound, video, and performance.

He received his Bachelors of Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London (2013), and his Masters of Fine Arts from Glasgow School of Art (2020), and was a participant in the Chisenhale Art Studio alternative education program Into the Wild (2016).

His works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including: Boardroom Committee Room, Glasgow, UK (2024), Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2023) Two Queens Gallery, Leicester, UK (2017), East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol, UK (2016), Limazulu, London, UK (2013), Gallerie Der HFBK, Hamburg, Germany (2013).