My work for Arts Gen x H_ME W_RK, The grey area, invites listeners into conversations with members of my family; conversations that seek to connect, contextualise, and communicate questions of identity, cross-border mobility, and intergenerational knowledge and memory.		

The work is an oral history comprising interviews with my father and his sister (my aunty), their parents (my grandparents), and my two younger sisters, collaged to recreate the cacophony of one of our many family gatherings at which everyone talks with, over, and alongside each other: six conversations at once, each unique yet interconnected and entwined, everyone a part of every conversation at once.

The grey area challenges the listener to actively engage with the voices and our stories. It is another step towards articulating and unravelling my identity and how I may continue to understand and proudly hold my heritage.

merinda_dias