Nhu Xuan Hua:
Of Walking on Fire

Of Walking on Fire spans both galleries at Autograph, with Gallery 1 tracing the consequences of lost conversations and gaps in Hua’s personal history. Silences shaped by migration and cultural rupture reverberate through her reworked family photographs, where figures merge and dissolve into one another. Scenes of apparent closeness feel unsettled or ambiguous, foregrounding the tensions inherent in remembering.

Throughout the exhibition, Hua’s photographs are presented alongside trinkets, objects and flower vases arranged on ornamental shelves, drawing on the visual language of Vietnamese temples. Painted shadows reference the quiet architecture of the family home.

Gallery 2 unfolds as a space of renewal, where what was once held in silence gathers strength and is carried forward. Hua traces a lineage of maternal figures in her life, drawing on the symbolism of the Vietnamese spiritual tradition of Đạo Mẫu – Mother Goddess worship – which honours female deities closely connected to the elements of Earth, Water and the Mountains.

At the heart of Gallery 2 is a new work, Little Super in Versailles – Archive from the year ’88, which imagines a young girl as a powerful symbolic figure carrying the weight of inherited histories. The feminine form emerges as a restorative force, as Hua reimagines her mother, grandmother and herself, asking: when language collapses, what forms of connection can still be carried forward?

Supporting artists to create new work has been a part of Autograph’s mission for more than 35 years. For this exhibition, we commissioned Nhu Xuan to create new series of 9 works. Two works from the commission will enter Autograph’s permanent collection of photography.