Ghostpatrol: written by Carla Clark
Maybe you’ve seen an animal plastered across a wall when wandering around Melbourne’s hip suburb (and my home) Fitzroy. Or maybe you’ve been to one of his many exhibitions across Melbourne. Ghostpatrol is street art, but different. He’s not about tagging or defacing public property. He uses a curious mixture of inspiration; colour and medium seems to be derived from his surroundings. A piece of his art never looks out of place.
It was my birthday two years ago when I discovered Ghostpatrol. I had the day off work and wandered around the quiet streets of Melbourne on a warm September day. His work was more subtle in the streets of Melbourne at that stage. I’d see a small character, sometimes a male and female with peculiar heads and would wonder who made this interesting art. Eventually I found something that linked the art to the name Ghostpatrol and I searched the World Wide Web. I found him at http://www.ghostpatrol.net/ .
In a laneway around the corner from my apartment is a huge paint spread along a wall measuring about 8 metres. Featuring some of his most well known characters, the bear instantly stands out. A collaboration between a few artists, I saw Ghostpatrol there on a quiet Saturday painting this extraordinary artwork. Scared to say hello, I emailed him the following week praising him for what I think is a great addition to my neighbourhood.
Check out his next exhibition in Melbourne. It’s called ‘Wild Things’ at Forty Five Downstairs, Flinders Lane, City from the 29th November to 8th December 2007.