IMPACT

Case Study: New Audiences

"It's great to see work of the Vietnamese diaspora"

Nhu Xuan Hua's exhibition Of Walking on Fire at Autograph centred experiences of the Vietnamese diaspora – connecting with new audiences

It's great to see work of the Vietnamese diaspora and to see similarity in our upbringing. I will be looking at my old photos differently when I go home

Exhibition visitor

who we welcomed

31%

Of visitors identified as Asian/Asian British or mixed Asian heritage – an increase of 14 percentage points from the previous year

68%

Of this audience group were visiting Autograph for the first time during Nhu Xuan Hua's exhibition, and

34%

said they lived, worked or studied near Autograph's gallery in Shoreditch, Hackney

the difference visiting made

93%

Of this audience group said they learned about subjects and stories often left out of historical and contemporary photography,

90%

thought differently about the way they make or look at images in everyday life, and

94%

said they developed a deeper understanding of how photography can represent a wide range of experiences and perspectives

Our Aims
We worked closely with French Vietnamese artist Nhu Xuan Hua over five years to develop her solo exhibition Of Walking on Fire. Autograph’s gallery is in Hackney, East London – home to a longstanding, vibrant Vietnamese community and where Hua herself lived for a decade.

This exhibition centred a family history of the Vietnamese diaspora, building on Autograph's previous work including Rémy Gastambide's photographs documenting the Black Amerasians of Vietnam. We worked closely with Hua to reflect the complexity of her work, and partnered with An Việt Archives on the exhibition public programme. We wanted to welcome audiences who might see their own stories and histories reflected in the exhibition – or encounter perspectives different from their own.

Due to the way the Census records ethnicity, the number of Vietnamese people living in Hackney is unknown. Hackney Council cites estimates from local community centres suggesting approximately 5,000 people from the diaspora live in the borough.

The exhibition
Nhu Xuan Hua's 2026 exhibition at Autograph reflected on the fragility of how stories are communicated – or withheld – across generations.

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.

Rooted in language’s inability to fully convey complex family histories, Hua reimagined archival photographs from her family’s time in Vietnam and their early years in Europe. These uncanny, dreamlike compositions echo how memory within the diaspora can splinter, blur and slip from view.

Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley opened Of Walking on Fire, celebrating Hua's exhibition and Hackney's communities.

Local Collaboration
With Nhu Xuan Hua, we collaborated with An Việt Archives - a Hackney-based collection of community archives of Vietnamese history in the UK and beyond.

An Việt Archives delivered four workshops at Autograph responding to Hua's exhibition and their own archival work, exploring how personal and community histories can be preserved and shared through photography, language and sound.

As a mixed, second-generation person, I could really relate to the theme of fractured memories and communication. This exhibition will stay in my heart for a while and I will process for a while. Thank you ... so respectful and not 'othering' at all, so rare!

Exhibition visitor

Building empathy
Nhu Xuan Hua's exhibition encouraged visitors to reflect on family histories, memory and experiences across generations.

Our gallery is a space to see things differently. Autograph champions photography exploring race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice – and the ways images can change how we see ourselves and each other.

Of Walking on Fire provided an opportunity to welcome local and under-represented audiences, while creating a space for visitors to connect with experiences and perspectives beyond their own.

Through this exhibition, I've been able to think and learn about an experience that I never thought about or realised. It let me see how different people experience life and growing up.

Exhibition visitor

Data Notes

We gather feedback in different ways across Autograph’s programmes, including surveys and evaluation forms with participants, partners and audiences, alongside our own programme records. Percentages shown on this page reflect the people who responded. Feedback is gathered across different activities, and the number of people responding to each question varies.

exhibition supported by

Exhibition curated by Bindi Vora.

Images, from top left. Banner: 1) Nhu Xuan Hua at the opening night for Of Walking on Fire. Photograph by Jannell Adufo. 2 and 4) Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire exhibition at Autograph. Photograph by Kate Elliott. 3) Opening night for Of Walking on Fire. Photograph by Jannell Adufo.

Page images: All exhibition installation photographs by Kate Elliott.
Mayor of Hackney at the opening night for Of Walking on Fire, photography by Jannell Adufo.
Nhu Xuan Hua, The Dancers – Archive from the year ’85 [detail], 2017-2022. Courtesy of the artist and Anne-Laure Buffard, France.