Mormon Feminist Assemblage Artist, Page Turner collects items of deep personal meaning to painstakingly create delicate objects that honor the feminine along with the desires, experiences and roles of women. Her powerful assemblages include found objects such as fur, wood, shells, paper and bone that firmly position her work culturally and geographically in the Appalachian region.
Turn stitches these objects together with family heirlooms, antique fabric, and other personal objects, by hand, to create delicate sculptural pieces infused with a new feminist aesthetic and a soulful reverence for her heritage.
Recently featured in 50 Contemporary Women Artists: Groundbreaking Contemporary Art from 1960 to Now, Turner has exhibited widely in Virginia, North Caroline, New York City, Washington DC and Los Angeles.
Sciffer's publishing the 50 Contemporary Women Artists was a book put together to highlight the often overlooked gems of the art world, artists who pour love into their craft and shape it uniquely form their perspectives as women. Each entry (including the likes of Barbara Segal, Lin TIanmao, E.V. Day, and Boo Saville) is a careful window to a world unexplored, and much like the compiling of this book, Page Turner works to display the hidden wonders and complexities the world.
As Page Turners says in her apprearance on the Center for Latter Day Saints Art's Studio Podcast,
when asked about if she faces frustration when dealing with the compression of her art's details in photographic form. "I think of it as more an opportunity that if you have eyes to see, you will see." It's a succinct artistic philosophy, and it engages the audience and forces them to approach the are with a curiosity they may not have brought before.
The process of 'bundling', the collection of materials for Turner's pieces is her way of engaging with the world in the way she wishes to engage her audience, collecting scraps, stones, fabric and bones to put together a simulacrum of a dream or memory, one that speaks to her experience as a women of faith and sisterhood.
And then of course, the assemblage, self coined as "Audacious Play". Play is the way all beings, before they can face the world, learn to explore the art in the process of creation, play is a necessary aspect. There are no
permanent rules, no expectations and no outside authority. Simply the exploration; and eager one, of the ideal that each object represents.
While the arduous process of photographing, writing and compiling everything needed for Turner's inclusion in the 50 Contemporary Women Artists book was far from careless, carefully figuring out each aspect of it was a form of play itself, each problem another idea to explore, such as trying to photograph old glass that had warped with the years, or capture the small details of each textured object.
PC: Sean Cuddy, "Power & Restraint; A Feminist Perspective of Mormon Sisterhood
If you have eyes to look, you'll see. And you'll see this book on the shelves of MOMA, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Harvard's bookstore. And for those perhaps looking to shop from somewhere closer to home, Barnes and Noble. 50 Contemporary Women Artists is a must have for anyone looking for an introduction to the world of women contemporary artists, especially those unafraid to speak about how their lives and experiences have shaped their art and hopefully this book will inspire a new generation of women seeking to break into the art world.
To view more of Page Turner's work, please visit: https://www.pageturnerstudios.com
