New Zealand born, Glasgow-based Artist and Curator
As a text-based installation artist (b.2004), Arabella’s practice engages the personal archive to examine themes of permanence, anonymity, authorship and interpretation through the act of digital notetaking. Centred around the gathering of information, she focuses on the unseen digital record of society.
‘Note to Self’ is an on-going anonymised open call, in which the public are invited to submit notes from their phones – Arabella, who herself has accumulated over 1,200 notes across a 5-year period, recognised the value in the notes app as a confessional space – a reflection of nuanced habits, beliefs and memories. Embracing authorship of the notes by combining her own with those submitted by strangers, she is able to reclaim and reconstruct the archive through the manipulation, selection and curation of text.
To challenge the current climate where privacy is becoming more sought after, yet increasingly harder to achieve, she employs analogue processes to instil tangibility and permanence, bringing hidden moments into public spaces. Using the traditional typewriter, Arabella works with mass-scale to confront, overwhelm and entertain – to reveal human vulnerability and highlight individuality through more immediate and visible means.
Interaction with the work is critical at all stages of Arabella’s practice from submission to production and final engagement, the notes are intended to unite people and draw out personal affiliations, resonances and reactions; anonymity allows the notes to be decontextualised and reclaimed by whoever experiences them.
The notes app exists as a readily used yet easily disposable aspect of our lives; a divide Arabella’s practice strives to dismantle.
BA Fine Art: Painting and Printmaking, The Glasgow School of Art, 2023 - 2026
Exchange programme, Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland July 2024 – November 2024
Foundation Diploma in Art, Design and Media, Wiltshire College 2022-2023
Awards:
Royal Scottish Academy – New Contemporaries Selection 2027
Visual Arts Scotland Award - Visual Arts Scotland
Glasgow Print Studio Membership Prize - Glasgow Print Studio
Graduate and Mentorship Prize - Starving Artist Opportunities
Exhibitions/Residencies:
Upcoming -
· Visual Arts Scotland Graduate Showcase, Dalkeith Palace - October 2026
· New Contemporaries 2027, Royal Scottish Academy - Date TBC
2025/2026
· Degree Show, The Glasgow School of Art, May - June 2026
· Self/Writing, GSA Library, Glasgow – April 2026
· House Surgery, Drawing Room, Glasgow - October 2025
· Residual Flesh, Garage Space, Barnes Building, Glasgow – May/June 2025
· White Tail, Film Screening, Reid Lecture Theatre, Glasgow - April 2025
· Two-Fold, Strangefield, Glasgow - March 2025
2024/ 2023
· Company Property, Barras Market Glasgow - November 2024
· Nga Toi Taketake, Group show at Elam, Auckland - October 2024
· The Holy Trinity, Collaborative film installation in Auckland - October 2024
· Earth’s embrace, Elam, Auckland - October 2024
· Salon Des Inclusions, Annex Gallery, Glasgow – March/April 2024
· Squeeze, Reid Gallery, Glasgow - February 2024
· Test Beds, Barnes, Glasgow - February 2024
· A Sense of Urgency, Residency at the Boardroom Committee room, Glasgow - February 2024
· Unseen, Glasgow - December 2023
· Drawing On Experience, Glasgow October 2023
· Foundation Arts Exhibition, Wiltshire College - June 2023
Invigilation:
· Sculpture and Environmental Art – The Second Life, The Glasgow School of Art – April-May 2026
· Interwoven, Maryhill Integration Network, The Glasgow School of Art – February 2026
· Seep by Kelly Rappleye, Windows on Heritage, The Glasgow School of Art - November 2025
· The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, July – September 2025
· Residual Flesh Barnes Building, Glasgow - June 2025
· Two-Fold Strangefield, Glasgow - March 2025
· The Holy Trinity Elam Auckland - October 2024
· Squeeze Reid Gallery, Glasgow - February 2024
Publications:
· ‘The Pathologised Artist as a Figure of Self-Mythology and Social Bias’ - Dissertation selected for The Glasgow School of Art, Fine Art Critical Studies Anthology - ‘Frame It’
· GSA Degree Show 2025: The School of Innovation and Technology, Article for The Skinny Magazine