The title of the exhibition is drawn from Joseph Campbell’s collection of essays, The Flight of the Wild Gander, which 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. This sage also feels at home both on water and on land, analogous to a person who adeptly negotiates disparate geopolitical cultural codes. The artists taking part in A Wild Gander do so, reflecting the complex issues that frame South Asian identity, whether based in gender, media representations, or politics.

A Wild Gander features Chitra Ganesh, Mala Iqbal, Jesal Kapadia, Yamini Nayar, and Divya Mehra, five New York–based artists. The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) is a New York–based nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement, visibility, and development of emerging and established South Asian women artists.