Jacky Cheng’s Instagram bio explains she’s “quietly exploring, fiercely doing.” Her quiet exploration began while studying architecture at the University of New South Wales located in Sydney. But after receiving her Bachelor of Architecture she decided to put architecture on hold and pursued her love for creating art in smaller scales.
Her exploration resulted in a kind of artistic niche – a blend of paper art and architecture. Relying on her background in architecture, Cheng often regards her style as a topographic technique that centers around the art of layering.
“The idea of layering became more apparent when I started to draw with my penknife,” she explained in an interview with Strictly Paper. This process includes cutting and layering one layer after another, “no drawn plans, no guide, just the knife, paper, and glue.”
Each work begins with a piece of paper, sometimes a large sheet of paper layering inwards, other times a tiny piece of paper, which she then works outwards. But most often than not it’s a combination of both. The result is rather striking.
