Excerpt from Kamala Kapoor, The Art Of Vivan Sundaram, Lustre Press, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2002:

'With this depiction (from the exhibition, 'Journeys') of a just-arrived cargo of female nudes being surveyed by an 'orientalist,' the artist seems to be constructing a colonial hypothesis as an instrument of power and exploitation. The work's adjustment of scale and perspective heighten the disjunctiveness of an otherwise lyrical composition, even as its voyeuristic position establishes an uneasy complicity with the viewer.'

This work is from the collection of Dhruv and Rati Sawhney, New Delhi.

Exhibition history: 'Journeys,' Aurobindo Gallery, New Delhi; Kala Yatra Sista’s Art Gallery, Bangalore; 1987-88.