These mysterious plaques by Invisible Man have been appearing around town, but then we saw this.

Bizarrely, and despite mangling the URL, the person making these plaques has started name checking this blog.

An activist/street artist called the Invisible Man has left small plaques on walls and telegraph poles around inner city Sydney, particularly Surry Hills and Darlinghurst. But recently, the Invisible Man’s branched out.

At this spot on Premier Lane, Darlinghurst, and on a few other walls around town, the Invisible Man’s appeared as a copycat of This Is For That’s alphabaffiti.

We’ve had people searching the blog for various combinations of ‘Darlinghurst’, ‘Sydney’ and ‘invisible’ or ‘invisible man’ every day for the past month or so. And at least one report, in the comments, of hand delivered material from Invisible Man.

Then one of our readers, Steve, noted this plaque on the corner of Farrell Avenue and Kirketon Road, Darlinghurst.

Hard to see, I only caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. It’s stuck to the curb that forms the garden bed on the little traffic island at the intersection of Farrell Avenue and Kirketon Road.

This one is for Lisa Marie Smith and references something happening with her in Bangkok in ‘96 – and on a side note, asks to ‘FREI BOGAN SCHAPELLE CORBY’.

It’s also got what looks like a giant spliff on it.

And then this…

Walking down to Cafe Hernandez on a recent morning, we noticed this artwork on a shelf, dated 2007 – clearly by the same artist – Damien Jones.

I saw an almost destroyed memorial to “AC/DC Tour Manager, Kit” near the corner of Ryder Street and Taggarts Lane, Surry Hills, across the road from the Hope Street Mission.

The Invisible Man is back.

On Taggarts Lane, I noticed a hint of a pink triangle.

It was the same tribute.

AC/DC Tour Manager

KIT DYE

Art by the Invisible Man, ‘09

Each of the Invisible Man’s triangle plaques are different from those before. But the writing seems distinctive, and it seems unlikely to be a copycat.

An odd memorial appeared on Kells Lane, Darlinghurst, two months ago. It was a pink upside-down triangle, attributed to The Invisible Man, that said ‘Remembering “Lani”‘ in big letters.

Another Invisible Man plaque appeared this week on Taggarts Lane, Surry Hills, near the Hope Street Mission.

This time, the words are inscribed on a red inverted triangle.

Crispin “Kit” Dye Xmas Eve 1993 Unsolved Plaque by The Invisible Man ‘09

In the comments for the Kells Lane memorial, Phil said there are a couple of similar plaques on Gibbons Street in the Alexandria/Redfern area.

They’re near Redfern station and are references to the gay-hate murders of Bill Allen and Richard Johnson in the late 80s in the vicinity of Alexandria Park.

They say:
William Allen 50 Unsolved 29-12-88 Invisible Man ‘09
Richard N. Johnson 33 15/1/90 Invisible Man Plaque ‘09

Both are written on inverted pink triangles with black lettering.

It’s a mystery. Is it memorial, advocacy, awareness raising, art?

We saw this odd street art on Kells Lane, Darlinghurst, today.

An off-kilter unicorn and a snorting android, paint peeling, with stars sparkling.

But tacked on top of the unicorn’s rump is this message.

Remembering “Lani”
Please boycott
Tim Tams
African slavery
Art by Invisible Man

Is it a reference to Lani Guinier (Clinton’s aborted nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 1993)? Or something else, and who is Invisible Man?