making is remembering


Biography

Jacky Cheng  was born in Malaysia of Chinese heritage. She received her Bachelor of Architecture (Honours 1) from University of New South Wales, Sydney.  She is an artist, a facilitator and an art educator based in Broome, Western Australia. 

Jacky Cheng's practice is fundamentally about identity and awareness through cultural activities  and memories of home, Country and relationships. Her significant concerns are about correlating and weaving narratives from her native experiences whilst mapping the esoteric and social relationships of her origins and her new found home, environment and social surroundings. Her awareness is amplified through her diasporic lens and identity as a person of colour in foreign borders as she continues to question her notion of 'home' and 'belonging' - 'here and there' and traversing the 'in between' territories. 

Profile - About

Photo credit: Anja Schutz

She work across several mediums predominantly papers and fibres incorporating her philosophy of 'slow art' - process based works that commands the direction of her practice.  Her award winning manual hand-cut paper enchantment is featured in ABC Makers and Creators segment  'The Paper Cutter', ABC Arts - ‘How art changed my life’.

Jacky continues to share her skill as an educator and facilitator in Broome, inter-regionally and interstate. Her award winning teaching accolades was also recognised at the state and national Vocational Education Training (VET) sector bestowed by the Australia Training Awards (2013). She was also a finalist for the Curtin University Teaching Excellence Award by Awards Australia (2015).

Jacky is the winner of the 46th Fremantle Print Award (2023),  Best in Bespoke Design; Design Fringe, VIC (2023), The John Stringer Prize (2022) and The Jury Art Prize (2021);  finalists in multiple art awards including National Works on Paper, VIC (2022) and 67th Blake Prize, NSW (2022), Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2021) to name a few.  She attended residencies in Finland (2017, 2018 and 2019), Spain (2018), Japan (2019), Fremantle Art Centre (2021 and 2022), SPACED (2022/ 2023) and Australian Tapestry Workshop, VIC (2023) to further her commitment in her practice. Her collaboration with Intensive Fields lab (if/Lab) resulted in a permanent integrated public art work titled 'Pleated Histories' completed in late 2022.

'The Calling Over Nagula' (2021) - a collaborative ephemeral public art work with Michael Jalaru Torres and Vanessa Margetts of MudMap Studio received the 2023 National Landscape Architecture Award - a national recognition from Australian Institute of Landscape Architects or small project category. 

Today, Jacky continues to practice, teach and facilitate on the lands and waters in and around Yawuru Country, Northwest of Western Australia where she lives and work since 2006.

Art Practice CV

*I acknowledge the Yawuru people whose land I live and work on and pay my respects to Elders both past, present and emerging, their culture and continued connection to Country.



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