SIMON NORMAND ART
SCULPTOR
PRINTMAKER
PAINTER
PHOTOGRAPHER
AUTHOR
ENVIRONMENTALIST
Simon Normand is an Australian artist whose work is shaped by a long engagement with Country, history and Aboriginal cultural knowledge. Working across painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, mapping and artist books, his practice sits between visual art, cultural record and historical inquiry.
Since first visiting Ngukurr in 1996, Simon has worked with children, Elders and communities across South-East Arnhem Land, the Roper River region and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Through long-term relationships with Marra, Wandarrang, Waagilak, Nunggubuyu, Yanyuwa and other Aboriginal people, he has helped record oral histories, songlines, place names, language and stories for Country.
His broader work asks how Australia sees itself, how it remembers its past, and what has been left out of those records. Through image, object, text and map, Simon brings attention to the living presence of Aboriginal knowledge, the layered history of place, and the need for a more honest account of this country.
LATEST PROJECTS
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Evergreen Labyrinth
The 160‑square‑metre labyrinth invites visitors on a gently winding journey to a central point. Featuring intricate mosaic artworks, the space celebrates First Nations culture and storytelling while recognising the Traditional Owners of the land, the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation.
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The Last Hooded Plover
Focussing on the plight of the Hooded Plover, the large-scale installation for Lorne Sculpture biennale is an embodiment of extinction-in-process of this tiny, yet significant bird indigenous to Lorne and southern Australia.
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Teaspoon Colony
An exhibition that uses the familiar Australian souvenir teaspoon as a starting point for examining colonial memory, tourism and national identity. The work exposes how decorative keepsakes often reduce complex places to simple icons while concealing deeper histories of dispossession, violence and cultural survival.
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Before the Clearing
An exhibition that examines the landscapes, histories and Aboriginal knowledge that existed before colonial expansion reshaped the country. Drawing on long-term work with Elders, songlines, oral histories and place-based memory, the exhibition challenges the idea of empty or unknown land and presents Country as a living archive of culture, story and law.
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Saltwater People
A cultural mapping project created with Marra Elders to record the significance of Limmen Bight and its surrounding saltwater Country. The map brings together place names, stories, songlines, sea Country and important sites, giving visual form to Marra knowledge and supporting Aboriginal voices in decisions about land, sea and conservation.
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Yarra Eels
Yarra Eels is a public sculpture project created for Yarra Valley Grammar’s Fine Arts Building, drawing on the cultural and ecological significance of the Yarra River. The work reflects the eel as a local species and migratory presence, connecting the school grounds to the surrounding landscape and the deeper histories held within it.
