Stem represents O'Connell's beholding to untamed nature. For O'Connell, a society's relationship to nature is synonymous with its cultural values. A society that clips its gardens, is one which values repression and control, whereas, a society that permits unrestrained growth is one that values freedom and liberty. Stem's production grew out of O'Connell's appreciation of the latter.

When O'Connell moved to her cottage in Cork from London, she became an obsessive gardener. One day, she noticed an onion sprouting in her kitchen bowl and decided to plant it in the ground to see what would happen and was fascinated by the magnificent allium plant the budding onion produced a few months later.

For O'Connell, the resulting plant was symbolic of the possibilities that can develop when natural growths, morphs and ruptures are allowed to run their course. In order to preserve the vitality and dynamism of this onion shoot, O'Connell poured plaster down the blooming plant's stem and cast it. An effort not only to record its fleeting nature, but also a method of inspecting it intimately, and eventually on a magnified scale.

Stem represents the importance of organic evolution in O'Connell's work. It is the result of curiosity and experimentation, representing the values of freedom and liberty that untamed natural beauty symbolises for O'Connell.