In the words of the artist:

With the "bathers" series I was thinking about "Primitivism", and how art history tells a story about Western abstract art. I was thinking about how such terms are inherently problematic, and thinking of how i could mess up this very convenient story that takes us from nymph- and- bather classical these, through African-inspired Modernism, and ultimately into the "radical" space of Euro-American abstraction in which, magically, African doesn't exist. The idea came to me of a mythical world of women who use abstract paintings as utilitarian objects, fashioning them as masks, clothing, and building materials for their houses. At the heart of it, I was thinking about the story of painting - these things that you would see if you walked through the Metropolitan Museum, and how to change the protagonists in that story.