Artist Showcase | Simone Arnol

Clan group: Gunggandji
Language group: Gunggandji

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

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

Arnol has participated in numerous group exhibitions at the Gallery, including Blak Portraiture in 2019, Ritual in 2021, and Faceless in 2022.

Nine photographs commissioned by the Gallery for the Faceless exhibition were purchased for the Gallery’s Collection. The works depict three men from the remote community of Yarrabah, ten kilometres due East of Cairns, which was established as an Anglican mission in 1892. Through these works Arnol captures the centrality of spirit to identity, not as fixed but as ever present in relation to their histories and traditions, and contemporary life.

In 2022 Arnol was awarded a Cairns RSL Club Artist Fellowship to produce a new body of photographic work for her first solo exhibition at the Gallery, seeRED. The series of photographic portraits was based on the heart-wrenching visual and aural testimonies to the history of Yarrabah and were presented as part of the exhibition installation. The exhibition included stories of Arnol’s Granny Tottie, that together connected the past with the present and the future.

Arnol is represented in the Cairns Art Gallery online First Nation Research Archive developed as part of the Gallery’s online Legacy Archive produced to celebrate the Gallery’s 30^th anniversary.

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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

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 – 21 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

Exhibition Catalogues

Ritual: the past in the present

Exhibition catalogue

Queen's Land: Blak Portraiture

Exhibition catalogue

Other Resources

Ritual: the past in the present

Exhibition video

Exhibition room brochure- See Red

Room Brochure