Textual content by Avani Thakkar, with inputs from Asad Sheikh. Images by Raajadharshini.
The artist, Nirbhai “Nep” Singh Sidhu, in entrance of a textile set up from Unstruck Melody.
On an overcast morning so typical of London, I discover myself on the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) to discover Unstruck Melody, Canadian artist Nirbhai “Nep” Singh Sidhu’s newest exhibition curated in collaboration with the UK-based arts organisation With out Form With out Kind (WSWF). As quickly as I step into the museum, my climate woes are changed by a way of serenity — for the interiors of the area the place the exhibition is on present are awash with mild blue lighting, and tranquil acoustic instrumental music performs within the background.
In Unstruck Melody — on present until October 15, 2023 — created for this 12 months’s version of the London Design Competition, the artist, together with curator Deep Ok. Kailey (creative director of WSWF), explores the necessities of Sikh practices in an experiential setting that mixes work, embroidered tapestries, sculpture and movie. Since that is the main target of the collaboration, you may suppose that you simply want a sure depth of data or curiosity within the topic to determine with and absolutely recognize Unstruck Melody. However after spending the day conversing with the British-born Sidhu at V&A, it quickly turns into obvious that the core of his work revolves round one thing much more common.
Wearing a brilliant yellow sweatshirt imprinted with “Sound of the Universe”, and shorts that appear to be as vibrant as his artwork, Sidhu says, “Unstruck Melody is centred across the resilience of reminiscence recall, the potentials of sound and the lively participation of listening. What’s fantastic is that these are instruments all of us have, no matter the place we discover ourselves and what practices we come from. These are instruments we will make use of to heal and regenerate our way of living. They assist not solely us but in addition these round us — our household and our group as effectively. So, this exhibition is basically in regards to the sharing, expression and distribution of data with these instruments.”
The title of this exhibit is a direct translation of shabad guru — Sikhs consider that it’s an inside sound that every certainly one of us is able to listening to inside us by means of the ritual of lively listening. Right here, Sidhu and Kailey visually depict the method of accessing this inside “unstruck melody” by means of the observe of simran (the Sikh meditative observe) which refocuses the thoughts by eliminating psychological chatter. Though the ultimate formal showcase of this concept was solely manifested right here on the V&A lately, Sidhu and Kailey have been deeply engrossed in discussions about Sikh spirituality ever since they have been first launched by a mutual buddy about eight years in the past.
About his artistic collaboration with Kailey, the Toronto-based artist says, “If you find yourself engaged in an ongoing dialog, at one level it could turn out to be pressing after which you might be actively required to do one thing. And that’s while you attempt to execute it as a result of it feels prefer it’s hyperpresent within the now.”
Sidhu with Deep Ok. Kailey, the creative director of With out Form With out Kind.
The interdisciplinary artist is a well-known determine on the cultural scene and has, for a very long time, centred his work across the broader facets of group and mindfulness, in addition to extra particular exchanges with topics as various as Buddhism, black liberation struggles and the Japanese financial miracle.
Whereas speaking to Sidhu, I turn out to be cognisant of the contagious calm in addition to the unbridled power that he paradoxically concurrently radiates when talking in regards to the references and genesis of his artworks, whose creation he labels as a pure incidence greater than an aha second. He factors out, “It’s not a lot a sudden act the place there’s a set intention of ‘Hey I’m considering this, you’re considering this — let’s mix it and make one thing’. Oftentimes, it materialises with no set intention of sitting down and doing one thing. It’s extra the results of a set of conversations or time spent collectively discovering the wit in issues. That’s the place the narrative actually lies, and typically while you share these sorts of commonalities, that in itself could be sufficient to encourage a collaboration.”
What informs Sidhu’s artistic course of are a variety of mediums and supplies. On a routine day, yow will discover him in his studio making collages, sketching pictures and photocopying them or faxing them to himself, drawing over them and making a collage once more. “I discover {that a} portray erupts out of deconstruction,” he says. In Unstruck Melody the identical faculty of thought is woven by means of the large-scale tapestries which comprise a myriad of surroundings, symbols and indicators — a lot of that are inherently Sikh. I significantly like the biggest tapestry that appears to sprawl vertically — it encompasses an explosion of particulars that would wish a couple of sitting to soak in. I spot acquainted components: a gurdwara, swords, turbaned males, and locks of hair. About these locks of hair, he elucidates, “The hair is touching the bottom – this symbolises the bodily sacrifices of Sikhs. If this exhibition is asking us to recall sounds and keep in mind the way in which through which we pay attention, then we must also honour our blood reminiscences. Shahidi refers to our brothers and sisters who’ve sacrificed their lives. With out that we wouldn’t be right here, I wouldn’t be having this dialog with you proper now. Our blood reminiscence is a residing thought. Our ancestors reside by means of us. So, once we have a look at materiality, we’ve all these potentials in the way in which that we will keep in mind our ancestors. And on this case, hair is such a visceral agent of recall.”
Left to Proper: A publication, that includes stylised Gurmukhi script, is on the market for guests to remove as mementoes; multimedia paintings from Unstruck Melody.
A publication is on the market for guests to remove as a memento of what they’ve simply witnessed. It’s inscribed with poems, visuals and free-flowing ideas on simran, sangat (group) and seva (selfless service) and for this, Sidhu has used a stylised model of the Gurmukhi script, the writing system predominantly utilized in Punjab. “We consider that our information is just accessed by means of our actions and if we merely discuss with it, it’s not sufficient. That’s the reason, typically, academia has its limits for us. Within the case of the time period ‘shabad’ (numerous compositions by Sikh gurus in Guru Granth Sahib), we’re combining the phrase and the sound. The phrase is the spoken information; with out the sound, there isn’t any expertise hooked up to the information. The chance for harmonic convergence is current in abundance all over the place, even within the sharing and utility of data by Sikhs. This concept of sound reminds us to expertise life, to sing, to odor and to precise. Now we have to merge the expertise with the sound. That’s why we are saying, ‘When the singing stops, information stops’,” says Sidhu.
As our alternate attracts to a detailed, I ask Sidhu to explain Unstruck Melody to somebody who could discover the practices of simran unfamiliar. Why ought to they go to? What’s in it for them past fairly work that may discover a fleeting presence on their Instagram Story? He solutions after a second of quiet contemplation: “Unstruck Melody presents the heightening of instincts as a instrument for all — that’s what makes it ‘pluriversal’. And the teachings are freely imbibed from the bottom up; they don’t comply with the top-down method the place they’re projected onto everybody. On this case, there isn’t any possession of a sense, observe nor reference to any faith. I consider these [the thoughts and teachings that are expressed through Unstruck Melody] are instruments for humanity.”