Nhu Xuan Hua Explores Silence and Diasporic Memory at Autograph London

Nhu Xuan Hua's exhibition 'Of Walking on Fire' at Autograph, London, runs until 19 September. The show examines intergenerational memory, silence, and cultural inheritance through photography and installation. Hua, born in Paris to Vietnamese parents, navigates her fragmented heritage. Her father, oral-deaf, communicates via spoken Vietnamese and self-taught French Sign Language, creating a layered communicative space. Gallery 1 features 'Tropism: Consequences of a Displaced Memory,' using digitally manipulated family photographs from Belgium and France. Works like 'Let the Horses Ride' employ inverted images to destabilize perception. Gallery 2 explores maternal lineage and the Vietnamese spiritual tradition of Đạo Mẫu, with 'Little Super in Versailles – Archive from the year ’88' depicting a young girl as a bearer of memory. Hua's background in fashion photography informs her compositional sensitivity. The exhibition contextualizes her practice within a broader movement destabilizing archival authority, referencing artists Dinh Q. Lê, Zineb Sedira, and Thao Nguyen Phan. Autograph's programme consistently foregrounds artists interrogating archives and inherited histories.