The College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts, Wayne State University, is pleased to present the exhibitions Waltz of a Ghetto Fly and Those Who Keep Strange Hours at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery from May 23 through September 20, 2025. An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 23, 5-8PM. 

Waltz of a Ghetto Fly will be featured on the lower level of the gallery and highlights the work and life of Amp Fiddler and his contribution to music. 

Those Who Keep Strange Hours will be on the upper level of the gallery with works by John Ikera, Beverly Fresh, Jeff Mills, Pure Rave, and Sterling Toles.  

Both exhibition coincides with the J Dilla Music Tech Teaching Workshop — a multi-day experience for Michigan public school teachers — hosted by WSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Save The Music Foundation, and CFPCA’s Department of Music. The workshop introduces K-12 teachers to modern music production led by Wayne State music faculty, using software and equipment in the J Dilla Music Tech Grant. The workshop will be held at Wayne State in July.

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Waltz of a Ghetto Fly, a multimedia exhibition, celebrates the life and legacy of Amp Fiddler. A Detroit icon whose contributions to music and culture for nearly 50 years, Amp left a profound mark on the city and the world.

 
In his debut album, Waltz of a Ghetto Fly, Amp envisioned the phrase as defining the essence of Detroit, the rhythm and soul that people embodied. Significant to his music, travels and origins rooted in the inner city, this exhibition illuminates his dedication and loyalty to craft and community, paying homage to a trailblazing musician and mentor.  

Through Native Instruments’ interactive music technology – Soul of Detroit and Amplified Funk – ephemera, instruments, videos and imagery, Waltz of a Ghetto Fly invites viewers to discover and experience the creative and soulful spirit of Amp’s legacy.

 “When it comes to shaping modern music, the influence of Detroit – the home of Motown and techno, Eminem and The White Stripes – is incomparable. And for the past 30-plus years, one musician has been the red thread stitched through the sounds of this city: Joseph ‘Amp’ Fiddler.”  (Stephen Worth, MixMag, January 23, 2018)

Amp Fiddler (1958-2023) was a producer and songwriter who left a distinctive mark on the international music community through genre-bending innovations in his personal craft along with his continued dedication to Detroit’s foundational artists. Reaching across the lines of multiple generations and every genre, Amp was able to apply the tutelage he received from past innovators (Harold McKinney, Marcus Belgrave, George Clinton) to his own practice, and also pass these sensibilities down to future generations.

Remaining staunchly independent throughout his career, Amp was always accessible to those around him, continually providing opportunities for others to greatly advance their careers. Perhaps most notably, his close mentorship of J Dilla was instrumental to Dilla’s singular impact on hip-hop’s ever-expanding DNA. As the one who introduced Dilla to Q-Tip, Amp was one of the main supporters of Dilla’s career, using his industry connections to lift Dilla up even when they could have been used for himself. But, Amp was determined to put Detroit Hip Hop on the map in a major way and expose the world to our city’s genius.

As his status and accolades grew throughout the years, working with icons and legends, Amp would continuously prioritize the fostering of Detroit’s musical talent. From recording with youth choirs, to providing personally tuned and restored pianos to many of Detroit’s children, to teaching music & technology workshops, to being an integral part of Dilla Youth Day for 10 years, his commitment to the proliferation of gate-kept resources and knowledge have forever changed this city, and thus the world’s, creative landscape. 

Amp blazed a trail of creative brilliance and selfless giving. His generosity in assisting and cultivating talent is evident through so many artists that we celebrate today. His life is a testament of the power of intention and faith in possibilities.

As proclaimed by the great Sterling Toles: “Amp is the only person that is the connective tissue to all of the music scenes and sub-genres post Motown.  There are so many Detroiters that have absolutely changed the world, while many Detroiters are completely unaware, and Amp is one of the greatest examples of that.” 

Waltz of a Ghetto Fly was curated by Tombi Stewart, in collaboration with Wayne State Galleries. 

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Those Who Keep Strange Hours, an experimental multimedia exhibition, features Detroit-affiliated artists and collectives whose work spans visual art and music.

Stop-motion animation, video installations, experimental graphics, kinetic sculptures, and interactive educational media hubs, guide the audience through unconventional production techniques. A recurring cyclical motif—both visual and audible—evokes a sense of confusion and interconnectedness. Reflecting echoes of cultural memory, each work weaves a continuous interplay between presence and absence.

Throughout the exhibition, idle industrial machinery, autonomous household objects, and desolate landscapes converge to create an uncanny experience. The uncanny, both unsettling and extraordinary, originates in German psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch’s concept of the ‘unheimlich’ (translated as ‘unhomely’) - something new and unknown. Cultural theorist Mark Fisher noted how the uncanny situates ‘the strange within the familiar.’ The artists here explore the known and unknown, often using conventional tools and processes in unconventional ways. 

Those Who Keep Strange Hours examines the gaps and impasses in common objects, rituals, and states of mind. By embodying the hypnotic, montage, absurd, and existential, revealing the strangeness that already exists within the everyday, the works twist traditional concepts of time.

The exhibition was curated by Zack Ostrowski (Beverly Fresh) and Tom Pyrzewski, and features work by John Ikera, Beverly Fresh, Jeff Mills, Pure Rave, and Sterling Toles.