Last Word: Neil Hobbs+Karina Harris

Landscape Architects, Art Collectors and Founders of Canberra’s public art biennial Contour 556, Neil Hobbs and Karina Harris have the last word on public art in the National capital.

Neil Hobbs. Photo credit: Georgia Hobbs

Karina Harris. Photo credit: Georgia Hobbs

TELL US PLEASE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR AMAZING PROJECT CONTOUR 556. WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO START A PUBLIC ART BIENNIAL – WHILE YOU ARE RUNNING YOUR DESIGN CONSULTANCY?

Neil Hobbs+Karina Harris (N+K)/ Contour 556 started as Neil’s research project for a creative practice PhD. I came up with the name, which references the Australian Height Datum (metres above sea level) of Lake Burley Griffin, which is the organising element for central Canberra’s wonderful public realm. Canberra has had a peripatetic history of public art events, some Commonwealth funded (sculpture 75), but mainly as a result of an individuals or groups initiative: (Acts I, II, and III 1978-1982, and National Sculpture Forums in 1995 and 1998). We wanted to bring those events back, and try to cement a public art biennial in Australia’s capital city. We had some advantages, in that we are landscape architects, so we know how to go about approvals for use of public space, and we know a lot of artists, locally, nationally and internationally, so content would not be a problem, assuming we could fund it.

It started as a project run through our office, using our time and staff time. At the time we were employing a graduate architect, who had also worked as an exhibition designer as an intern at the National Gallery of Australia. Jordan knew all the best companies to source printing for signage and catalogues, so again we had inside running knowledge. Things have moved on, we received some capacity funding from Arts ACT, and incorporated as a board in late 2019. We have a board of seven, Jordan is still with us, and we added some skills in media, legal and connections with building owners in Canberra City. We also were very well supported by an intern from ANU School of Arts and Design, Rachel Turner, who took on all the graphics production and website development.

Richard Lewer in front of his work l can’t run away all my life sometimes I just have to stand and fight’!, 2020 acrylic on found flag, 360 x 730 cm

Each event has grown artist numbers and event footprint. From a 2.5 km essentially lake side walk with a few detours in 2016, in 2020 we occupied an island near the National Museum, and extended fully into the city, including Civic Square, a new collaboration with Canberra Museum and Gallery has a very large Richard Lewer painting on a ‘retired’ Parliament House flag – 7.6 x 3.3m. The 2020 event also saw a move into smaller gallery spaces, in the suburbs and industrial areas, making use on new and continuing in-kind supporters.

Funding is always key, and we have been generally successful with funding bids, 2 out of 3 through the Australia Council, and always very strong support from the ACT Government. We have built up great support from individuals and donors from Canberra and Sydney and Melbourne. Visiting an art biennial in Canberra is logistically almost easier than attending Sculpture by the Sea, and in normal years it is a good weekend break for our Melbourne friends.

Alex Seton The Golden Calf, 2018 polyethylene road barriers and printed vinyl 350 x 191 x 191 cm Photo credit: Mark Pokorny

WHAT ARE YOUR CONTOUR HIGHLIGHTS?

N+K/ There have been many highlights, just a few:

We had a triple 000 call in 2018, thanks to Gary Deirmendjian’s floating plastic gloves Reach tethered slightly below the lake level, to be fair looking very much like a dead hand reaching up. His companion piece Breach was a very poetic work of 27 ropes linking the carriageways of Kings Avenue, and forming the shape of the hull of a boat.

Archie Moore’s Crop: Reap/Sow in 2016 was an installation of 17 lineal metres of encyclopaedias set spine up in the ground. They surrounded a 7m2 plot of Yam Daisies. It was sited beside the lake, probably quite close to former plantations of Yam Daisies by the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, next to the banks of the now flooded Molonglo River. The 17 lineal metres of encyclopaedias had no mention at all or the existence of Indigenous agriculture pre-white settlement in Australia. When people made this connection, the change was profound.

Alex Seton’s Golden Calf, 2018 sited on the midpoint of the land and water axes ruffled a few feathers. Gary Carsely’s One place in another in 2016 was also a great piece.

In 2020 Megan Cope’s Walangala installation is just the kind of work we like to see and like to help realise.

Similarly with Connie Anthes Untitled (Solidarities), both large scale works, really interacting with and transforming the landscape that they inhabit. In a different setting, a granite paved building forecourt in the City, Bonita Bub’s Scissor Lift, at 5.3m high was another impressive largescale realisation.

The best of 2016 was Katy Mutton’s In plain sight, marine grade vinyl and marine grade paint, applied to a 30 seat electric boat in dazzle camouflage pattern. It plied the lake as a tourist boat in Katy’s livery for the 2016 and 2018 iterations. (The friendly boatman Jim Patterson continues to assist – helping to transport James Tylor/ Samantha Rich’s The Dwelling and Glen Hayward’s Y Love to Springbank Island for the 2020 edition.

Each iteration of Contour 556 has also included events and performances. Too many to talk about, but we have enjoyed Ham Darroch’s reprise of Slow Walk for London 2010, presented as two Slow Walks for Canberra, recognising the gift of the UK Government of the Carillon on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin in 1970.

AS WELL AS RUNNING A PUBLIC ART BIENNIAL, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING COLLECTORS AND SUPPORTERS OF ARTISTS. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PURCHASE TOGETHER? WHAT KEEPS YOU COLLECTING? DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO AGREE ON AN ACQUISITION?

Megan Cope Walangala, 2020 perforated concrete and native swamp reeds dimensions variable Photo credit: Sarah Vandermark

N+K/ The first work we bought together was a triptych by Margaret Morgan, Love is.. from Mori Gallery in 1986. A large charcoal work on paper flanked by two smaller oils on canvas.

We do start each year with a resolution ‘NO MORE ART’, but that is broken by the end of January.

We typically would agree on a work, but sometimes one or other isn’t available when a stunning work pops up on your screen or on a visit to a gallery that compels purchase.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T AGREE?

N+K/ We have only ever bought what we like. If we don’t like it, we don’t buy it. Weirdly, we have always agreed. Although there is one piece in 35 years that Neil bought that lives in a cupboard, enough said!

LAST WORD?

N+K/ We have gotten so much joy from collecting. Meeting the artists and gallerists (like Urs and Jo). We consider many to be friends and it has been a wonderful journey. We have no room in our home (literally, it is what one might call a ‘Baroque’ hang) and our garden is fast filling, yet we continue to buy and collect. We are lucky that we have two children that now have homes with walls that are being filled!