Inspired by Renoir's The Great Bathers (The Nymphs), Katie Tomlinson’s Player 3 (The Great Bather) reclaims the traditionally voyeuristic depiction of women in art, transforming the subject into a powerful, animalised, faceless figure. The subject, once a passive bather victim of the painter’s gaze, has transformed into a fearsome Bobbit Worm, a marine predator known for its ambush tactics and dazzling metallic colours.

The facelessness of the bather underlines her anonymity in a patriarchal system while also empowering her. The use of the close-up, depicting large-scale body parts also alludes to the act of objectification, while also taking up space and showing presence. The glistening purple body with blue details feels otherworldly in an unsettling duality between beauty and danger.