Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire
Autograph
Artform: Photography
Event date: Thu, 16th Apr 2026 to Sat, 19th Sep 2026
London
- Exhibition
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Wed, 18 Mar 2026 "> published -
Event Summary
What is communicated – or withheld – across generations?
Event Description
Autograph is developing the first UK solo exhibition of the French Vietnamese artist Nhu Xuan Hua. Opening in Spring 2026, the exhibition will span both gallery spaces at our Shoreditch building, featuring newly commissioned work presented for the first time. Working at the intersection of art and fashion photography, Hua reflects on the fragility of memory and the ways stories are communicated - or withheld - across generations. She reimagines archival photographs from her family's time in Vietnam, and their early years in Europe, to create dreamlike digitally-altered compositions that shift between recognition and distortion. Across her work, Hua builds elaborate visual reconstructions that echo how memory in the diaspora can splinter, blur and slip from view. Born and raised in Paris to immigrant parents who fled to Europe after the war in Vietnam (1955-1975), Hua grew up feeling a palpable distance from her Vietnamese heritage. Questions about the past were often met with the refrain Why are you asking? The past belongs to the past. This loss of vocabulary - essential to understanding her own history - was further compounded by a communication void between Hua and her parents. Her father, who is oral-deaf, communicates in spoken Vietnamese and a broken, self-taught form of French Sign Language which he learned in the late 1970s after arriving in Paris. Across generations, there was no common language spoken in the household. These silences, formed through migration and cultural rupture, reverberate through the diluted contours of bodies in her reworked family photographs, where figures merge and dissolve into one another.
Event Overview
- Event Title: Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire
- Type: Exhibition
- Date: Thu, 16th Apr 2026 to Sat, 19th Sep 2026
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Location:
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Event: Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire
Event: Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire
Organisation: Autograph
Postcode: EC2A3BA
Useful Links
How to Book
Book a free ticket on Autograph's website
- Contact email: [email protected]
About Autograph
Organisation Description
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.