Jacky Cheng is currently working with the community of Margaret River. This residency forms part of one of Spaced’s current programs, Rural Utopias.

Jacky Cheng is an artist and an art educator based in Broome, Western Australia. Cheng's work is fundamentally about identity and awareness through cultural activities  and memories of home; country and relationships. Her significant concern 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.

Here, Jacky shares an update from Margaret River.

After my 3-month residency in Fremantle Art Centre during summer, it was good to head home to Broome to reconnect. Summer heat in Perth was different to the heat in Broome. It was hot and steamy in Broome but I welcomed it regardless.  It felt like I have not had rain touch my skin for so long. Soon the earthy smell started permeating the air and that sense of familiarity feels very comforting. It rained hard and I had my wet-season fix. 

Two weeks past and this time I’m off to Margaret River for another residency with Spaced. I have been piquing random people’s thoughts about Margaret River or rather ‘Margs’ as how most Australians abbreviate names, places, food, well…. everything. They say, ‘you know, the surfies, the bushwalk, the vineyard and you’ll need warm clothes’. In all honesty, I don’t do too well in the cold and most will say the opposite about Broome. 

Over the years, I’ve known lots of people that travel between these two locations for music festivals, art trails, family visits, surfing holidays, wedding etc. A few things came to mind. I thought about that symbiotic connection between Broome and Margaret River. Comments were usually about tourism, seeking warmth during winter and vice versa. There are parallel similarities between Broome and Margaret River – both a popular tourist destination and attract transient residents to town with demands for the hospitality industry or perhaps a taste and swap for an opposite season. 

I arrived on Easter Monday and for the rest of the week, Margs town was heaving. The WA school holidays, the Margaret River Pro (surfing event - for those who are as ignorant as me to this temple of a sport here) added to the sudden influx of *tourist. The seasonal ‘space’ here felt like home in Broome minus the surfie crowd. There was no immediate need for me to be part of the crowd maybe because I have a different intention - to get to know Margs in a different light.

One of my perks during my travels to other regional town in the past is to visit the physical community noticeboard which I love and always stop to examine. I went searching for Margs’ community noticeboard. Some boards are in supermarkets and another is along the far back entrance of a small mall walkway next to a phone repair booth. The tangibility of these ephemeral sheets of pinned up papers to advertise wanted or for sale items, public notices, call for action messages, announcing of events or even simply to offer unique services intrigues me.  Part of the appeal of these notices is that they are handmade, and while they can be sorted into categories, each notice gives many clues to the identity of its author. Some ads are written on cards and slotted in between metal dividers, others are on pinboards, strangers have also taken the liberty to correct or ridicule other’s post. All notices employ all methods of construction, from handwritten to professionally printed. Some are written in pencil on lined notepaper, some have photographs stuck to them with tape, others are designed using Word templates and wacky fonts and printed out at home, some are simply business cards. For now, this is parked at the back of my mind. I shall revisit weekly to follow the community’s development, requests, wants, and needs.

So, things were moving so quickly and I’ve locked in 3 community workshops at the gorgeous tiny Church Gallery on the Old Hospital Heritage Precinct to bring people together and get to know the local stories. I came across a noticeboard post about a lady traveller who lost the blanket her nanna knitted. I resonated with that feeling – grandmother and hand-made object relationship. I decided to respond to this ‘feeling’ with a community paper patchwork blanket as part of the community engagement. I felt the sense of communal artistic enthusiasm when I mentioned ‘free art workshops’ to several people. I’ve ran the first one and it was a success. The word has gone out and looks like between ‘free’ and ‘art’, I’ve opened a can of worms for perhaps an adoption and conversations of Utopianism in Margs. 


*Tourism Visitor Summary, Shire of Augusta-Margaret River (PDF), accessed 30 April 2022 from Tourism Research Australia, Unpublished data from the National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey 2019/20 (https://economy.id.com.au/augusta-margaret-river/tourism-visitor-summary)

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