Nhu Xuan Hua’s Surreal Family Photographs Convey What Words Can’t

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Summary

  • Vietnamese-French photographer Nhu Xuan Hua recently opened Of Walking on Fire, her first UK solo at Autograph in London
  • On view through September 19, the exhibition explores the fragility of communication and the slipperiness of diasporic memory
  • Highlights include works from Tropism: Consequences of a Displaced Memory, digitally altered images from her family’s personal archives

Nhu Xuan Hua’s photography focuses on what’s left unsaid. The French-Vietnamese artist explores the disconnects within her family’s past and cultural heritage. She sees art not just as a way to tell stories, but as a universal language – a way to connect when words aren’t enough.

Currently on display at Autograph in London is Hua’s first solo exhibition in the UK, titled Of Walking on Fire. The exhibition fills both of the gallery spaces with evocative, dreamlike artworks. Hua reinterprets and subtly alters images from her family’s personal collection, exploring the unreliable nature of memory and the feeling of wanting to let the past remain untouched, as if to say, “Why are you asking? The past belongs to the past.”

Hua grew up in Paris after her parents escaped the Vietnam War, and her connection to her Vietnamese heritage always felt distant. This was due to the difficulties of being part of the Vietnamese diaspora, the pressure to fit into French culture, and the fact that she couldn’t easily communicate with her parents. Her father, who is deaf, communicated using a mix of spoken Vietnamese and a unique form of French Sign Language he taught himself.


Throughout the exhibition, you’ll find pieces from Hua’s series, Tropism: Consequences of a Displaced Memory. These are digitally altered artworks that take fragmented memories apart and rebuild them to create something new. For this show, Hua has also created a new piece, “Little Super in Versailles – Archive from the year ’88,” featuring a young girl who represents hope and carries the burden of the past.

The artist recently explained that their work aims to recapture everyday moments from memory, almost like replaying them to tell a new story – for example, a mother eating bread while watching her kids and hoping to be a better parent. The artist believes this process is driven by a strong desire to find something special and meaningful in the simplest things.

Of Walking on Fire is now on view in London through September 19.

Autograph
Rivington Place, 1 Rivington Pl,
London EC2A 3BA,
United Kingdom

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2026-04-29 21:57