In Barbier’s meditative journey through India, she deconstructs the myth of the objective documentary by using textual commentary and off-camera remarks to address the problematic relationship of observer to observed. Framing the images through the artist’s subjective and distinctly female point of view, she explores images of women working, sweeping, cooking, and tending children in direct juxtaposition to men who sit, relax, and observe the spectacle. As this imagery unfolds, the frequent interruptions of a three-year-old daughter demanding attention interrogate the relationships of camera to subject, and that of the woman working behind the camera to those working in front of it.
