Scaling a 120-metre-high pillar on the Bolte Bridge on a freezing winter’s night is no mean feat – nor one to be recommended – but it is typical of the artist allegedly behind Pam the Bird.Jack Gibson-Burrell’s work regularly pops up in unexpected, difficult-to-reach places, including signs above freeways, the Flinders Street Station clock, the side of the Novotel Hotel in South Wharf, and on one of Melbourne’s much-loved “cheese sticks” at the beginning of Flemington Road.The alleged Pam the Bird graffiti artist descends from the Bolte Bridge pylon on Tuesday morning.Joe ArmaoPam the Bird is a simple line drawing that has become the trademark image of the graffiti artist from Melbourne’s west. According to @goodbirdart, an Instagram site reportedly showing behind-the-scenes images and information about the bird, the image depicts a shoebill, named after a teacher and inspired by a drawing done in grade 3.Opinion about the work is polarised. While many marvel of the audacity and creativity of the young man, others are outraged by the damage done to public and private property.The 22-year-old’s alleged latest move is his most audacious yet, with police stopping traffic below the Bolte Bridge, resulting in a nine-hour stand-off. Police believe the man gained access at the base of the pillar, where a platform leading to a door and staircase can be seen, about 3am on Tuesday.In a video shared to an Instagram account on Tuesday morning, the man – later identified as Gibson-Burrell – said: “I’ll be down at 12pm peacefully. Just waiting for the tide to get a little bit lower.” He came down about 11am without injury and was taken into police custody.In earlier videos, shared on social media, the man appeared to be atop the bridge’s eastern concrete stack, looking down on several emergency vehicles and the road. “I’m not coming down until they lower the taxes,” he says, his voice raised and shaking. “I’m f---ing sick of paying that shit.” Asked which taxes, he replied: “All of them.”He also asked for a peanut butter and jam sandwich, a glass of milk and a blanket, via Instagram, saying it was “kinda cold”.The 20-metre-high Pam the Bird graffitied on the eastern pylon of the Bolte Bridge overnight.Joe ArmaoSocial anarchy or a sense of adventure?Art is in the eye of the beholder, says Shaun Hossack, founder of public art agency Juddy Roller. “Obviously, the artwork is vandalism and unsanctioned, and so many people would see it as social anarchy, and the other people would say it brings a bit of joy, a smile, a sense of adventure to the city,” he says.“I do think that Pam the Bird is quite a complicated character, a character he is. He’s also like Melbourne’s very own Joker. Street art and graffiti are two very different things, and they have very different outcomes and intentions.“Street art is very much a commercial entity for artists to express themselves and enjoy potentially a fruitful career, whereas graffiti is and always has been a way for people with less agency to communicate their own ideas and values to a very large audience without the need to ask for permission, or without the funding to secure billboards or ads in the newspaper as other commercial entities may do.”Regarding the bird, Hossack thinks it’s creative but in a way that is not considered by many historians or critics. Context is important, he argues, and the fact Gibson-Burrell allegedly chooses these very interesting locations in itself is artistic. “It’s almost an installation. He works with the architecture and the location; the audience is almost a participant within his art,” he says.“If you look at the Flinders Street Station one, it’s very naive, but it’s also very funny and very clever to turn such an iconic building and particularly the clock into one of his characters. In a way, it’s almost conceptual his art.”Lord Mayor Nick Reece has characterised Gibson-Burrell’s alleged work as vandalism. “If you spray, you pay,” he has said in reference to Pam the Bird and any other similarly high-profile graffiti artists. “There is no artistic merit to these works — it’s just plain vandalism.”On Tuesday, Reece said: “This is an incredibly stupid and dangerous stunt that has disrupted thousands of commuters and defaced a city icon. The cringeworthy acts of this attention seeker have real life consequences for people in our city.“There is no artistic merit to graffiti like this – it’s just senseless vandalism ... Arrests of alleged offenders is a step forward in cleaning up tagging in Melbourne. We hope this means another vandal is off our streets.”Melbourne City Council promotes sanctioned street art projects but spends millions each year getting rid of unwelcome tags and graffiti.Soon after former Age reporter Tom Cowie wrote about the Pam the Bird phenomenon in 2024, The Age building – part of Nine Entertainment – was tagged with the image. The account told Cowie it had “hundreds of run-ins with the police”. “Thank f--- they can’t fly. Makes it really easy to escape,” they said.Says Hossack: “It’s up to the public to interpret whether it’s good or bad. Either way, he’s Melbourne famous, and with what he’s doing he deserves to be world-famous in his own right.”He draws a correlation between Tuesday morning’s activity here with Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Kuznetsov, 32, who climbed the Empire State Building in New York last week. It was widely reported around the globe, and Hossack argues there was far less public discourse around safety. It was celebrated there, he says. “I don’t ever think there’s been a more loved graffiti artist in Melbourne.”Pam the Bird graffiti being cleaned off Novotel, South Wharf, in February last year.Jason SouthGibson-Burrell is on bail after pleading not guilty to more than 200 charges that he caused $700,000 in damage by vandalising property across Melbourne.Gibson-Burrell’s bail conditions had included living with his grandmother in Geelong, complying with a nightly curfew and not possessing abseiling or graffiti-related items.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.