Steven Holland, Moon over the Murrumbidgee: red-bellied blacksnake moon and river, 2013, bronze, oil paint and auto lacquer, 45 x 164 x 9 cm. Photo: Benton McGeachie.
Steven Holland’s fascination with snakes goes back to his childhood when growing up in bushland in southwest Western Australia. Half a century later, with a few university degrees under his belt, including a PhD devoted to snakes and bronze, his interest has not waned.
In the Chinese zodiac, 2025 marks the Year of the Snake – the Yin Wood Snake to be specific – and it seemed too good an opportunity not to celebrate it with a Holland snake exhibition.
Eight bronze sculptures feature in the show – their verisimilitude to real snakes a warning to those suffering ophidiophobia to steer clear of this exhibition. You’ll also see 10 drawings largely related to the yellow snake dreaming series.
Steven Holland, December moon, 2013, bronze, oil paint and auto lacquer, 48 x 46 x 10 cm Photo: Benton McGeachie.
There is nothing creepy about this exhibition. It is more of a celebration of snakes and their mysterious connection with the moon. The snake, or serpent as it is frequently called, lies at the core of many religions.
It was a snake that offered the apple to Eve that led to the expulsion of man from paradise and introduced illness and death to humankind. The Rainbow Serpent is the persistent Dreaming among many First Nations peoples in Australia and the ouroboros is a complex and widespread snake symbol throughout Asia.
In dreamscapes, snakes occupy a unique position from the sexual interpretations of Sigmund Freud to allegories for horror and death with images of Cleopatra succumbing to a snake bite administered by her own hand.
Holland’s snakes in this exhibition occupy a space between snakes that wriggle, slither and creep in the bush and those loaded with abstracted allegorical meanings. His Moon over the Murrumbidgee: red bellied blacksnake moon and river, December Moon and February Moon are amazingly lifelike snakes.
The sculptures are cast in bronze and touched with oil paints and auto lacquer to precisely replicate the creatures I have encountered when bushwalking. They precisely convey the tactile qualities of the snake’s skin and the colouring mirrors that of the real reptiles. The sculptor also appears to relish the joy of following the snake contours as a sculptural form.
Steven Holland, Sito, 2008-14, bronze, nail varnish and lacquer, dimension variable, life-size feet. Photo: Benton McGeachie.
Other bronze pieces are more allegorical and include Sito.
“Sito is named after the Egyptian primeval serpent that appears on the Papyrus of Ani,” the artist writes. “Ancient Egyptians worshipped Sito as a creative spirit. It was believed Sito created everything. By entwining his spiritual essence around the world Sito guarded the cosmic and subterranean world.
“In my sculpture, the head and the tail of Sito exist as two separate parts. Each section of the snake morphs into a human foot. The relationship between human feet and snakes is acutely experienced when walking in the Australian bush in summer.”
These anthropomorphised snakes are a haunting and slightly surreal creation.
Steven Holland, She, 2025, pencil, ink, tissue paper, wallpaper paste, PVA glue, cotton, aluminium foil, MDF board, 40 x 40 cm. Photo: Benton McGeachie.
His Yellow snake dreaming drawings, including She and Began to, are more experimental pieces that stand in contrast with the hard bronze forms. Attracted by the idea of how the serpent sheds its skin, Holland explores surfaces with tissue paper hinting at snakeskins and in some of the pieces the implementation of wallpaper paste, cotton and aluminium foil seemingly creating an environment in which snakes can thrive.
In a curious way, these drawings appear as quite happy works that celebrate snakes as creatures of hope and survival.
Holland has produced a bold exhibition that may be interpreted as a quiet celebration of snakes. Not as something to be feared, but as creatures of hope and fascination from which we may all learn.
Steven Holland, Began to, 2025, pencil, ink, tissue paper, wallpaper paste, PVA glue, cotton, aluminium foil, MDF board, 40 x 40 cm. Photo: Benton McGeachie.
Steven Holland: Moonsnake is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm until 5 April at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed St, North Greenway. Entry is free.
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