Oral History (of Us) / 2025

Audio installation, 4 minutes, 2025

My mother speaks to me in Punjabi, but I respond back to her in Urdu. I speak to my daughter in Urdu, but she responds back in English. My mother and my daughter do not communicate in any verbal language – just smiles, hugs and food. Over the course of just one generation, Punjabi is a lost language in my family. Now as immigrants in the U.S., Urdu, too, might be a lost language in my family.  Oral History (of Us) / 2025 invites the audience to listen to a phone call addressed to my daughter, covering a few centuries of our history. 

Photos by Deanna Dent and Samantha Chow.