Knowles Place, which runs along the front of the Canberra Theatre in Civic, has been invigorated by a new "super-graphic", the work of local artist Sonia van de Haar.
Sonia, aka Lymesmith, designed the work, with Geoff Filmer, Canberra's mural man, helping to apply it to a concrete wall - and even the adjoining roadwork.
Commissioned by the City Renewal Authority and Cultural Facilities Corporation for the Design Canberra Festival, the work called Along Civic Lines, has references to everything from the gold columns of the Legislative Assembly to the facade of the Canberra Museum and Gallery to the pencil pines along the laneway to the red corporate colours of the Canberra Theatre to the Ethos statue by Tom Bass.
"It's very much generated from the architecture of Civic Square," Sonia said.
While Sonia wanted to honour the architecture, she skewed and twisted the lines, inviting people into the space.
"I've tried to make [the lines] relax a bit," she said. "It's that idea of leaning, relaxing, having fun and playing with that very upright Civic posture."
Sonia also "reached up and pulled a few bits of sky down".
"So your eye moves around and it's just visually a more active space," she said.
Sonia joked that working with Geoff had been kind of an "arranged marriage" that turned out to be a lot of fun.
"You get to learn and collaborate with people and see how they do stuff," Geoff said.
"So there's always that knowledge-sharing opportunity and it's just great to do that."
