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Published:6 March 2008

One of the paintings at the exhibition

Confronting our hang-ups on sex trade

Former dancer turned artist Sandra Turnbull’s paintings aim to show that the sex industry is not all black and white, writes Sara Newman

ARTIST Sandra Turnbull’s latest exhibition celebrates the lighter elements of the ever-growing sex trade.
The launch of All About Eve, a watercolour and oil painting display, was accompanied by a ballerina lithely contorting her frame around a pole at the Novas Gallery.
Crowds gathered around a voice box to listen to a former stripper talk proudly about her earlier incursions into the sex industry.
A video of a pole-dancing class shows Sandra Turnbull writhing and wriggling with the rest.
She has experience in both dance and commerce. As a former dancer, touring with a troupe, she met John Turnbull of rock band The Blockheads fame and later became the manager of Shakespeare’s Sister and the Eurythmics.
Her pretty watercolour “snapshots” of strippers stand in contrast with the more frenetic Room with a View, an image of a woman on all fours.
A series of larger paintings show five popular fetish images of women including a nurse and a geisha.
Turnbull explains that she chose the world of exotic dancing as an artist seeking new ways to represent the nude.
She added: “I was trying to make a statement in paint that women are so multi-layered. We are not seen in our full capacity.
“These women are marginalised and ostracised. There’s joy in the industry and it’s not all debauched.”
Turnbull has thinly applied layers of oil paint giving an ethereal translucent appearance.
The hollows where the eyes should be, rather than communicate emotion or a sense of vacancy, conveniently allow Turnbull to avoid making any bold statements about the individuals themselves or what each of the five women symbolise.
Turnbull has refreshingly turned the tables on the voyeurs – the men.
She said: “I was fascinated to watch how they [men] don’t even think about the way they look.”
Judging by her painting, their faces can only be described as menacing, but even this is toned down.
Perhaps she is unaware of her own ambivalence towards the symbiotic relationship between the punter and the dancer.
Given how inoffensive her paintings are, neither portraying the sex workers as either goddesses nor victims and the punters as neither distinguished nor pernicious, it is understandable that this is art that will have commercial appeal.
Turnbull’s efforts have been commended by the International Union of Sex Workers who were also present at the opening night.
But there’s nothing new in Turnbull’s depiction of femininity and what is deemed to be sexy. Joy, vulnerability or the wider context of why the female form is so often commodified and inspected is left unexplored in this exhibition.
Much like the debate played out in the national media – should sex workers receive more support; should the trade be decriminalised or penalised further? – Turnbull’s painting is a work in progress.
• All About Eve is at the Novas Gallery, 73 Parkway, NW1 until March 21.
Wednesdays-Sundays, 11am-5pm.
www.novasscarman.org

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