An outsized graffiti bird in Melbourne, Australia, has become the center of intense debate as residents and officials argue over what should happen to the work next.
Days after police arrested a man who climbed and tagged a major Melbourne bridge with a cartoon bird known as “Pam the Bird,” thousands of people urged the city to keep the graffiti in place. Victoria Police have described 22-year-old graffiti artist Jack Gibson-Burrell as a “notorious vandal” whose conduct has recently escalated into alleged violence, and he has been charged with multiple offenses connected to his latest stunt. At the same time, nearly 9,000 petitioners have defended the “Pam the Bird” image as “spontaneous urban culture” worthy of preservation.
On July 7, Gibson-Burrell turned himself in after a tense standoff in which he remained perched atop a 140-foot tower on Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge. Police say he forced open a door to a staircase leading to the top of the landmark tower, then abseiled down to tag a giant upside-down bird and the words “Fuck You.”
Gibson-Burrell now faces more than 200 charges, most of them tied to his extensive graffiti activity across Melbourne. He has allegedly placed “Pam the Bird” on other major buildings in the city over the past few years, including the clock tower of the Flinders Street railway station. He also faces separate charges in relation to an alleged assault on a retail worker.
He was reportedly on bail at the time of the Bolte Bridge incident and living with his grandmother. On the Australian petition platform GetUp, supporters called on Melbourne officials to preserve the Bolte Bridge version of “Pam the Bird” rather than remove it, pointing to its popularity. Local news outlets reported that removing the tag from the tower would cost the city tens of thousands of Australian dollars.
The petition says its support for the embattled bird figure is not meant to encourage similar illegal acts in the future. “When [something like this] happens, perhaps the best response isn’t to immediately paint over it,” the petition, written by Eric Giordmaina, says. “But to acknowledge that public art sometimes appears in unexpected ways.” Police responded to the Bolte Bridge incident after 2am on July 7, and photographs from the scene show Gibson-Burrell giving a black-gloved middle finger to officers waiting below. Around 11 am, he surrendered on a nearby embankment with his hands raised. In a now-deleted Instagram account believed to belong to Gibson-Burrell, called “pambirdofficial,” a masked man says, “I’m not coming down until they lower the taxes. I’m fucking sick of paying that shit.” Hyperallergic sought comment from Gibson-Burrell, Giordmaina, and the city of Melbourne.
