There is something intimate about Nicole Chui’s newest exhibition Grassroots Never Dies, Worldwide. From the starkly different themes of embroidered photographs to community football matches, Nicole sewed our communities together through her exhibition with The Substation and in collaboration with Melbourne-based football club Brunswick Zebras FC. Every thread stitched across each image transforms transient moments of pliers tackling, defending, and celebrating into lasting memories.  

For Nicole, this is exactly the point.  

Born in Hong Kong with both Malaysian and Hong Kong Chinese heritage, and currently based in London, Nicole has a diverse view across culture, arts, movements, and belongingness.  Through the rise and fall of each breath in football, Nicole explores her identity. Movement and the expression of bodily language surrounded Nicole since childhood. She was trained in ballet for 10 years and she evolved to later found the London-based football club, Baes FC. The football club fosters and celebrates a community for women, trans, and non-binary people of Asian heritage to bond together through football.  

Nicole’s focus has not always been on a particular sport or art, but community. She explains: “Community will never die and will always be the core of what I do. It's the spirit of coming together that will always be the foundation of my personal values and my art."  

That’s perhaps why Grassroots Never Dies gives a hint of familiarity and intimacy to its audience. Rather than documenting elite football culture, Nicole focuses on the very theme of human connection—community. Sports are meant for people to connect through similar passions. Grassroots football clubs, particularly, exist for this very reason—to create a space where people discover that victories are built upon the foundations of friendships.  

Nicole further explains that without the grassroots communities, she would never have found football. Through running her own football club, Nicole discovered that “grassroots culture genuinely empowers people." For her, our sense of community must be actively built and advocated and not simply preserved passively.  

“I feel proud that through Baes FC and my art I'm a strong part of the foundation of expressing Asian identity in British football culture loudly and real to who we are."  

Art appeared in Nicole’s life not only through movements of her body, but also through needle and thread, as embroidery became another pathway for her to express herself. Nicole’s embroidery is not simply decorating photographs but annotating and transforming them into something deeply personal. Bright threads exaggerate players’ movement, celebrating not only athleticism, but also the emotions behind each victory and loss. It focuses on women proactively celebrating each other through each goal, through each kick, through each breath.  

"Football brought us together even though we are geographically on other ends of the world."  

Through her personal connection with football, Nicole collaborated with Brunswick Zebra FC.  Although on opposites of the world, their values were identical. For Nicole, she sees herself “documenting history whilst being part of building it."  

Grassroots Never Dies resonates with audiences beyond football. Nicole pointed out that “life is a team sport, and football beautifully captures that.” To her, the exhibition captures a broader image. It represents her past, present and future self. As her needle deliberately passes through the fabric, Nicole is documenting the past but also rewriting the future. The exhibition reminds us of actively writing our story, contributing to the community we are in, and fuelling our world with love.