This work by Suchitra Mattai is about freedom. The woman is in a period of transition, waiting comfortably in a space of safety. All around her are hands reaching out to her, representative of the forces, powers, and people who would influence her if they could, but she is unreachable. Mattai found the original image of this woman in the pages of a vintage, colonial era book about travel to colonized lands. Surrounding the woman are designs taken from a colonial era design book that appropriates the aesthetics of colonized people, claiming them as the cultural heritage of the colonizers, not the colonized. Mattai reclaimed these images and designs, updating and re-contextualizing them as the foundations for new myths layered over the stories of the past. Rather than serving as an object of wonder and speculation, the woman is empowered to take her story in a new direction.