"I never lived on a ship before. It's a new experience. I got many moments of tranquility and peace and hectic and intense," artist Victor Holder says.
"It's like the ocean, chaos and calm."
In mid-July, Holder (artist name Victor Dreams Holder) arrived to take on the Ship4Good's first artist residency. For three months, Holder lived on board what is now called the MV Steve Irwin, docked in Carrington. In a prior life, it sailed the ocean for decades, steered by Sea Shepherd activists dedicated to protecting ocean creatures.
Holder just wrapped up his month-long Seaing is Believing mapping projection light exhibition which raised money to sustain the ship. An encore exhibition has been scheduled for December 10 and 11, with new projections as well. Tickets are on sale now.
For the past two years the owner and custodian of MV Steve Irwin, Kerrie Goodall, had been hoping to bring Holder on board. Like Goodall, Holder was, at the time, based in Melbourne (he now lives in a Mongolian yurt at Brunswick Heads).
He's a multidisciplinary mixed-media artist originally from Venezuela where he grew up on farms and surrounded by nature. Painting is his main medium, but he also works in video production and animation. He describes his art as surrealism with impressionism, all connected to the ocean.
"All my family are obsessed with nature. I am the consequences of my family, about nature people and art," he says.
"Every work is about nature. I have pieces called voices of the earth. I am in the position to be a channel. The trees can't defend themselves; the animals the same. I am part of the team defending nature with my art."
Holder spent two months on board to make a 10-minute projection, and he says sometimes 10 minutes can take a year to produce. He created the work based on stories about what had happened on the ship, the environmental activists and the mission to save the whales
"I don't feel like I made a sacrifice. I push my limit to the top of my mind, body and spirit. I don't know how I'm not that tired; it was bigger than me in many ways," Holder says.
"I overcome beyond my own imagination and my own ego. I was completely a channel of information. The spirit of the ocean taught me many ideas. I got up every morning with no alarm at 3am until 10pm to work on it."
While making projections, Holder also painted art on board, calling it the Life Upholder exhibition. Though he leaves this week, the paintings will remain on the ship. Anyone who wants to see them should contact Ship4Good to arrange a time.
Holder was financially supported for his residency on the ship, but it's bigger than that.
"I'm getting more than money here, I'm getting the opportunity to contribute to the conservation of the ocean, art conservation, telling stories, influencing kids. Seeing oxygen as medicine," he says.
