Artists from the South Asian Women's Creative Collective
Curated by Baseera Khan
March 25 – May 1, 2010
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 24, 7 to 9 pm
Chitra Ganesh
Mala Iqbal
Jesal Kapadia
Yamini Nayar
Divya Mehra
Yamini Nayar, One of These Days, 2009. C-type print, 36 x 48 in.
The title of the exhibition, A Wild Gander: Artists from the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, is inspired by Joseph Campbell’s collection of essays, The Flight of the Wild Gander. Campbell’s title references the Sanskrit concept of the paramahamsa, an enlightened spiritual teacher who transcends the mundane, just as geese (hamsa) are able to transcend the earth through flight. According to Campbell, this sage feels equally at home on water and on land, just as the artists in this exhibition adeptly negotiate between disparate geopolitical cultural codes and spaces. Campbell also stresses that local myths inevitably contain new variations, cross-fertilizations, and the appropriation of old and new ideas.
Mala Iqbal, In Sight of Coconino, 2007. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 90 in.
These artists transcend and look beyond conventional understandings of contemporary South Asian identity. They reclaim representations of their heritage, reference pop culture and art history, and reveal the influences between East and West in a dizzying fashion. Skillfully interweaving medium and material, these artists produce diverse bodies of work that conceptualize the presence of liminal spaces between identity and formal study of artistic practice.
Divya Mehra, Bruce (For Sue), 2009. 27 Channel video installation.
Chitra Ganesh, Ghostwriter, 2009. Lenticular photograph, 20 x 30 in.
Jesal Kapadia, Telegraph, 2005/10. Digital video. 3 minutes 30 seconds.
Public Program
Photo by Shaun Keenan
Wednesday, April 14, 7 pm
Look Left: Readings from the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective
The South Asian Women's Creative Collective presents an evening of readings featuring eclectic, left-of-center poetry and prose. Writers explore what it means to them to “look left,” whether it be traveling opposite of expectation or casting a glance out at the periphery.
Writers include: Beena Ahmad, Sunu Chandy, Shymala Dason, Madhu Kaza, Alka Khushalani, Shivani Manghnani, and Amy Paul. Curated by SAWCC board members Anjali Goyal and Anantha Sudhakar.
Also on view in the Project Room: Apologies and Further Concessions, curated by Lori Ledis Emerging Curatorial Fellow Erin Sickler