Turner’s work now focuses on the relationship between human health and the environment. Place and places are investigated using abstract forms and imagery that are superimposed on a background of pathways, tracks, borders, crossings of site and of citings.
The Project
The Dangers of Artificial Light at Night
Turner’s earlier work investigated the idea that artificial light at night was claimed to increase breast cancer risks amongst nightshift workers. Turner found that artificial light at night disrupted the body’s natural circadian rthythm which in turn increased oestrogen production, a proven risk factor associated with the disease. This information gave Turner the impetus for a series of oil paintings depicting alternative shiftwork patterns. By using bold contrasting colours and abstract biological forms provided a strong horizontal and vertical element to her work that evoked the concept of day versus artuficial light at night.
Keeping Track(s)
As the work evolved, and in her never ending quest for answers, Turner began to question to what extent the places in which women work and live were linked with the increasing incidence of breast cancer. In her exhibition “Keeping Tracks” Turner explored some of many issues confronting women working in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia which may put them at increased risk of breast cancer. Some of the issues related to their cultural belief, distance from medical treatments, commitment to jobs on farms and suspicion of western medical services all increased mortality rates for some women who had been diagnosed with the disease . The paintings started to provide the link between human health and the places in which we live and work.
Fate and Place
Now Turner’s new work moves towards a more compelling mode of enquiry. The concept now examines the entanglement between place and places that may determine the outcome and fate of human life. The human aspect within the enviroment provide Turner with another layer of meaning that shows how places are also shaped by the lives of the people that are formed within them.
The relationship between health and some of the elements of place continues to be central to both her work as well as her experience with breast cancer.
