The idea of harmony and interaction between humans and nature is a continuous theme in the work of Breon O’Casey. Bather II is taken from a small series of ocean bathers where the figures appear to stand powerfully on the shore at they meet the sea. Through stripping his subject back to mere gestures and simplified lines, his work conjures a comforting familiarity with the figure as she stands ready for the first waves to hit, alluding to a harmony between nature and bather.

'Unsurprisingly, it is primitive art which most informs his [Breon’s] own sculpture. Stylised,
pared down, loaded with symbolic and spiritual meaning, this art spans continents
and centuries, yet retains these unifying features. It expresses in the most simple
terms a powerful presence beyond its size, capturing expansive ideas in a spare
physical form.'
SARAH COULSON