LANDSCAPE architect Neil Hobbs and his architect partner-colleague, Karina Harris, are obviously born optimists – they never had any real doubt that their biennial public art festival-by-the-lake “Contour556” would go ahead.

Taking its name from the water level of Lake Burley Griffin, this will be the third iteration of the event and with funding from EventsACT, ArtsACT, the City Renewal Authority, Australia Council and private sector donors, they’re confident it will hit the spot once more in encouraging Canberrans to view this designed city in a new light.

The event is now incorporated, with a board and talented ANU intern Rachel Turner to help Harris and Hobbs negotiate “lots of chickens and lots of eggs” in the form of locations, government approvals and regulations.

“Yes, we were always hopeful,” Hobbs says.

“Although four months ago it looked a bit grim… but with people walking around the lake in droves, we thought, fingers crossed, that as our exhibition takes place in the public realm it would be a perfect opportunity to try out physical distancing.”

Among their newer partners are smaller galleries like the Nancy Sever in City Walk, where sculptor Greg Johns will exhibit his Corten steel works.

“And when you think about it, contemporary galleries rarely have more than two or three people in at a time, so there’s no problem with crowds,” Hobbs says.

Outdoor events dominate in “Contour556”, allowing people to view art while walking or riding their bikes, so it will be fairly easy to manage.

With a City Renewal grant, Harris and Hobbs realised that expansion was key, so activities have been programmed in the ANU precinct, around Petrie Plaza and even in Braddon, Hobbs says, “establishing a connection between the city and Braddon as a kind of outdoor art space, as well as a newfound focus on West Basin near the museum and on Springbank Island”.

It’s a movable feast, with some items going up a bit before “Contour”, others coming down early and a few continuing into November.

Sydney-Portuguese artist Nuno Rodrigues de Sousa’s three-work installation “The Laws of Growth”, inspired by Mondrian, Spinoza and Euclid, has been on the walls at Cox Architecture in Eastlake Parade, Kingston, since September 14 and will come down on October 23.

Nearby, Michael Le Grand’s 1982 painted steel sculpture “Cockatoo”, made from salvaged material from the old Reid House boiler, will be up outside Cox Gallery from October 1.

Performance artists, including Ellis Hutch, Jacqueline Bradley, Canberra Dance Theatre, the Lurk Collective and Localjinni’s AlleyHART will be found everywhere, reciting, moving and telling lakeside stories.

Canberra writer Sarah St Vincent Welch will chalk poems on the pavements at Commonwealth Place, then tweet them to the world with the hashtag #Litchalk.

Among the many lakeside installations will be “One, Another”, a series of black and white photographs exploring the intimacy, frivolity, excitement and daily life of husband-and-wife photographers Aishah Kenton and Sean Davey.

One initiative that has captured Hobbs’s imagination is by Katy Mutton, whose artistic boat was a central feature of the first “Contour 556” in 2016.

Funded by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and ArtsACT, Mutton will be engineering a performance piece, “Panopticon”, outside the ANU Drill Hall Gallery on October 16.

Mutton tells “CityNews” she started with an interest in the more obvious apparatus of surveillance, like CCTV cameras, but soon became interested in camouflage and the way algorithms can be bamboozled in facial recognition to change how we perceive things.

With the response of viewers in mind, Mutton has created two wearable outfits, “Space and Light gown” to be worn by printmaker Estelle Briedis, and “Space and Sound suit” to be worn by entertainer Chris Endrey, both designed around their personalities. 

But, she tells me, with the advent of coronavirus, it all morphed into something to do with social distancing, wanting to stay away from people.

The two wearable art items are made of printed tulle stitched to other moving fabrics so that they look “a bit reptilian”. Then, in the substrata of the outfit are filaments that glow in the dark, some triggered by light.

The garment include have sensors, so as you get closer you get to Endrey, his suit will play his own music and if you get in his face it will be downright noisy, while with Briedis there is a physical barrier, a large hoop to keep people out, but if they should get inside the hoop, she’ll light up.

Hobbs couldn’t be more pleased at this prospect and that of a new era for “Contour 556”. With decent funding, the bulk of which goes to paying the artists, he now feels it’s quite literally become a part of the Canberra landscape, so that he can confidently assert, “We’ll be back in 2022”.

“Contour 556,” October 9-31, all program details at contour556.com.au