Artist Showcase | Simone Arnol

Clan group: Gunggandji
Language group: Gunggandji

Simone Arnol was born in Cairns, Queensland, where she continues to live and work.

Simone works across a range of mediums, including painting, photography, fashion and design, dyeing, weaving and ceramics. Through her work she recounts stories about the time of church missionaries in Queensland when they forcibly controlled the lives of many Aboriginal people during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Simone has participated in group and solo exhibitions, including the Cairns Art Gallery’s exhibitions Blak Portraiture in 2019, Ritual in 2021 and Staged Photography in 2023. In 2019 she co-curated the fashion performance Bulmba-barra…When bare feet touch the earth for the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Queensland. Simone's 2023 solo exhibition seeRED was a heart-wrenching visual and aural testimony to the history of Yarrabah and Granny Tottie, connecting the past with the present and to the future

In 2021 Simone won the National Indigenous Fashion Award (NIFA) – Environmental and Sustainable Contribution Category and in the same year won the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Emerging Artist Award.

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Simone Arnol

Solo Exhibition | Highlighted Works

Simone Arnol: seeRED
24 Jun - 3 Sep 2023

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Simone ARNOL Mission Worker’s Rules # 1. The rule is: Remember that. “Example” is better than Precept from the 1899 Yarrabah Rules and Regulations, 2023 digital print Courtesy of the artist Model Tahleise Willet, Gunggandji peoples and traditional owner of Yarrabah

Simone ARNOL Store Rules: Visitors are kindly requested not to use the terms "GIN" "N**GER" "MARY" or "BENJAMIN" but to use the words "WOMAN" BLACKS" "WIFE" "HUSBAND" from the 1899 Yarrabah Rules and Regulations 2023, Courtesy of the artist, Model: Tahleise Willett

Simone ARNOL Mission Worker’s Rules # 1. We couldn't get food...You know what we used to live on over there, sweet potatoes... sweet potato one meal... sweet potato another meal: Sweet potato for breakfast, we eat sweet potato until we look like one. From a recording of Granny Tottie (1985), 2023 digital print Courtesy of the artist Model Tahleise Willet, Gunggandji peoples and traditional owner of Yarrabah

Simone ARNOL Mission Worker's Rules # 6 The rule is: Remember to adhere to the system and routines as laid down from the 1899 Yarrabah Rules and Regulations 2023, Courtesy of the artist, Model: Tahleise Willett

Simone ARNOL Girl’s Home Regulations: BLANKETS To be aired daily. Dirty blankets to be washed. Each inmate to have her own blanket with her name in the corner. Blankets to be pressed by 12 o’clock and the press locked by the Matron (detail) from the 1899 Yarrabah Rules and Regulations, 2023 digital print Courtesy of the artist Model Sara Fagan, whose Great Grandmother was part of the Stolen Generation

Simone ARNOL Very poor food we had there... very poor, most of the girls died because they had no blood. from a recording of Granny Tottie (1985) 2023 digital print Courtesy of the artist Model Tahleise Willet, Gunggandji peoples and traditional owner of Yarrabah

Group Exhibitions | Highlighted Works

Staged Photography
22 Apr – 11 Jun 2023

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Simone Arnol, Cross Country 2022, digital print, Courtesy the artist

FACELESS Transforming Identity: Blak/Black Artists from North Australia, Africa and the African Diaspora 2022
25 Jun – 2 Oct 2022

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Simone Arnol, Cross Country 2022, digital print, Courtesy the artist

FNQ Contemporaries 2022
29 Jan – 6 Mar 2022

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RITUAL: the past in the present
15 May – 22 Aug 2021

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Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists Simone Arnol and Bernard Singleton Jnr, Medicine clay, 2019-2020, digital print, Courtesy of the artists

Queen’s Land: Blak Portraiture
17 May – 11 Aug 2019

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Simone Arnol, Story place from the Through my eyes series, 2016, digital print, Courtesy of the artist Simone Arnol, Story water from the Through my eyes series, 2016, digital print, Courtesy of the artist Simone Arnol, Healing water from the Through my eyes series, 2016, digital print, Courtesy of the artist

Mara: Indigenous design, politics and food culture
29 Jun – 9 Sep 2018

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Mara: Indigenous design, politics and food culture installation, Cairns Art Gallery 2018

Collection Works

Simone Arnol, Bishop Arthur Malcolm from the Cross Country series 2022, digital print, Purchased with funds donated by the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation, 2022 Commissioned by Cairns Art Gallery

Simone Arnol, Uncle David Mundraby from the Cross Country series 2022, digital print, Purchased with funds donated by the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation, 2022 Commissioned by Cairns Art Gallery

Simone Arnol, Nathan Schrieber from the Cross Country series 2022, digital print, Purchased with funds donated by the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation, 2022 Commissioned by Cairns Art Gallery

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