Diasporic Resonances: A Workshop on Sound and Memory

How can sound resonate within diasporic communities?

Join us at Autograph's gallery for a hands-on workshop exploring how stories can be amplified across diasporic communities. This event will be led by members of An Việt Archives and will build on their community archiving practice, rooted in the experience of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian refugees in Britain, particularly East London.

Artist and community organiser Trà My Hickin works at the intersection of the arts and community wellbeing. As part of the Amplifying Archives project, she collected oral histories to surface overlooked voices, and explore how the feminine, the domestic, and the unspoken can be held within the archive. Artist, producer and videographer Thierry Phung’s sound practice reflects on family history and Vietnamese diasporic identity. In the sound piece C.O.T.A II, he weaves together his father's karaoke recordings with home video audio and original music to create a tender, therapeutic excavation of inherited memory and displacement. Together, their practices approach sound as a restorative process: one that balances and fills the silences within the archive.

This event forms part of the programme for Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire. Accompanying the works on display is a soundscape drawn from the postwar wave of Franco-Vietnamese adaptations, including Thanh Lan’s Aller Danser, which resonated across generations of the Vietnamese diaspora. Carried through melody, Hua’s work reflects on what is often felt but left unspoken when encountering familiar sounds.

The ticket price for this event is £10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If this ticket price is unaffordable for you, please get in touch with Harriet at harriet@autograph-abp.co.uk about free ticketing options.

Read more on Autograph's website

Workshop Lead by

Trà My Hickin works at the intersection of the arts and community wellbeing as a publisher and community organiser. She uses storytelling and applies narrative approaches to social justice and community building projects. She works for the contemporary radical international literary press, Tilted Axis, an ongoing exploration into alternatives – to the hierarchisation of certain languages and forms, including forms of translation.

She uses an intersectional and people-centred approaches to working with Vietnamese and other ESEA migrant communities, which she brings to her work with the An Việt Archives, Southeast and East Asian Women’s Association (SEEAWA), the Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC), and various other human rights organisations.

Having been awarded a fellowship from Better Engagement Between East and Southeast Asia (BEBESEA) she is editing and translating a collection of life stories from Vietnamese refugees and migrants in Hong Kong.

Thierry Phung is an artist, producer and videographer born in Montpellier, South of France and now based in London. He released music on Pan-Asian electronic label Eternal Dragonz, Vietnamese trailblazers Nhac Gãy, and made an EP ‘Children of the Apocalypse’ on Kelman Duran and Comic Ans’ label Scorpio Red. This one was made after a return from Vietnam in late 2019, through multiple lockdowns, up until the present day. Defined by its heavily textural atmospherics and cinematic composition, Children of the Apocalypse serves as an attempt to in ONY’s words: “soundtrack the video game I will never create and a reflection on my family history, what it means to be Vietnamese in the south of France.”

He also has been crafting stories on his genre-bending NTS radio show. He mines whatever he finds to craft an immersive and strange musical environment. His shows are by turn dark, ethereal and uncanny, often all at once.

Your Visit to Autograph

Everyone is welcome at Autograph. Planning a visit? Have a look at our Visit Us page to find out more about getting to the gallery, accessibility and more.

Limited tickets: Autograph's events are very popular. We reccomend booking in advance.

Accessible venue: Autograph welcomes people with all types of disabilities.

Seating: This is a seated event.

Step free: Our building and entrance is step free. A wheelchair accessible lift goes to all floors.

Location: This event will take place in the Studio on the ground floor.

Materials: The ticket price for this event includes materials.

Refreshments: There will be light refreshments available trhoughout the event.

Have any questions about your visit? Get in touch with Harriet at harriet@autograph-abp.co.uk

In Collaboration with An Việt Archives

This workshop series is in partnership with An Việt Archives - a Hackney based collection of community archives of Vietnamese history in the UK and beyond. The events build on An Việt's ongoing exploration of archives, memory work, history and knowledge-making. Visit Autograph's website to read more about the workshops.

Ticketing policy

The ticket price for this event is £10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If this ticket price is unaffordable for you please get in touch with Harriet at harriet@autograph-abp.co.uk about free ticketing options. Autograph's events are popular, and often sell out. We recommend booking a ticket in advance. If you need to cancel your ticket for any reason, you can receive a refund up to 24 hours before the start of the event. You do not need to bring your paper ticket to the event.

Autograph supported by

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire is suppported by Arts Council England and Galerie Anne-Laure Buffard.

Autograph ABP Registered in England | VAT no. 244105051 | Registered Charity no. 1127712

Images: 1) Nhu Xuan Hua, Braindead, one pill makes you bigger[detail], 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Anne-Laure Buffard, France. Copyright © Nhu Xuan Hua. 2) Autograph, London. Photograph by Kate Elliot.