a Slang in the Steel,
a Sound for the Sangat

DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER

For decades Detroit has transmitted culture and sound with global reach. Nep Sidhu’s ‘Paradox of Harmonics’ vibrates at a frequency that left Detroiters feeling seen in an exhibit that revealed itself as “a beautiful mirror”. Short film ‘a Slang in the Steel, a Sound for the Sangat’ asks how artists might enter communities respectfully as it reflects on Nep Sidhu’s epic 2022 installation at MOCAD.

“Unseen, I watch a true wizard who, in humility, considers himself not to be one. He mystically brings together elements and people expecting that something extraordinary will happen.

Through polymer drapes that muffle the sound of grinding steel and extinguish flying sparks I see him handily manipulating machines and tools, as if they are extensions of his mind and body. His confidence pushes aside fear of harm and ensures safety.

Now he chooses his cloth and armor, and sits with them in quiet, collecting his thoughts. Ablutions performed, body garbed appropriately, he demonstrates gratitude and reverence for the unending melody.

He honors the ancestors, he recognizes those predecessors who nourished him as a young jitterbug and provides a space for all to gather in sacred sanga, while the music flows ((sound for the sangat)) from the tangible manifestation ((slang in steel)) of that wizardry, and now the whole community is nourished. Actually, all of the atoms in that place are nourished.

It seems to me that though he is the vessel through which fine work becomes manifest, he insists upon shining the light on others; be they ancestors, predecessors or contemporaries, and the melody continues!”

-Wayne D Wells on ‘a Slang in the Steel’