Painting

Eva O’Keeffe

Bathers

Derived from a contemporary rendition of the historical theme of ‘bathers’ my work focuses on the whirlpool of interaction and movement.

The theme of Bathers is one which has been explored throughout history as a means of depicting the nude in a naturalistic way, often engaging in a ‘private ritual’. My depiction of the modern day sea swimmers contrasted these ideals with their public and social characteristics.

My work focuses on capturing the chaos and flux within the Bathers bodies as they merge and interact with one another. Though capturing the overlap of these bodies, I became fascinated with the manner in which the body would contort and fluctuate, and in doing so could not only maintain its human qualities but also hint and an animalistic nature. Within these aspects of my work I took huge inspiration from both Francis Bacon, and from Louise Bourgeois sculpture ‘Twosome’ as both artists played with the dualities of abstraction and figuration as they reconstruct the architecture of the body. Drawing reference from this, I focused on reconstructing and composing my Bathers in a manner by which they both reference the historical origins of the theme, while still maintaining a contemporary component though their hyper-sensualistic and abstracted assembly.

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