Palmer's practice is primarily research-based, and explores the poetics of matter and nature through such subjects as mineral extraction sites, human bodies, and land wealth.
[4]" Her recent work engages with issues of shared natural resources and takes the form of large-scale public projects with a social or environmental focus.
Her extended exploration of mineral extracting in the United States resulted in the publication In the Aura of a Hole by Black Dog Publishing (2014), which includes photographs and text by the artist.
For example, their 1993 "Flood: A Volunteer Network for Active Participation in Healthcare," consisted of a hydroponic garden in a storefront in the Rogers Park, Chicago, neighborhood to be used by HIV/AIDS service organizations.
[1] In 2006, she collaborated with mathematicians Martin and Erik Demaine on "The Helium Stockpile," a mathematical folding sculpture consisting of hundreds of wooden blocks that can be manipulated into near countless shapes by the viewer.