Hallo Spaceboy: What a 7-metre tall blue astronaut is doing in Perth’s Stirling Gardens

By creammagazine, May 27, 2025

If you’ve been in the Perth CBD and have passed by Council House, you may have noticed a 7-metre-tall spaceman sculpture that has taken up residence in Stirling Gardens.

The monumental work is the creation of US artist Brendan Murphy, who gifted the piece to the City of Perth, courtesy of Cottesloe-based Gullotti Galleries.

Another of Brendan Murphy’s giant spaceman ‘Boonji’, this one subtitled ‘Frozen with Desire’.

The spaceman, named ‘Boonji’ is a signature character from Murphy’s sculptures and,a ccording to Perth Deputy Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds, the bright, larger-than-life character is meant to pay homage to Perth’s ‘City of Light’ origin story. It is, in fact, part of a series of spacemen sculptures that currently span the globe.

Says Reynolds: “Like other spaceman artworks in New York, London, Washington, Mallorca and Oslo, Boonji Spaceman is expected to become a major attraction, drawing both locals and visitors to stop, take a look and grab a selfie.”

But what’s the actual space connection? Well, according to NASA, Perth, Western Australia, is renowned for its exceptional visibility of the International Space Station (ISS) as it orbits Earth. This makes Perth a prime location for skywatchers eager to observe the ISS. NASA’s “Spot The Station” program provides schedules for upcoming ISS flyovers in Perth, allowing residents to plan their observations. For instance, on Friday, May 30, 2025, the ISS will be visible for 1 minute at 6:37 AM, reaching a maximum height of 10° above the southern-southeastern horizon. I’ll let you stay up and try and catch sight of it for me as I’ll likely be sleeping till 8.

So back to Brendan Murphy. The artist is renowned for his expressive sculptures and paintings that blend abstraction with figurative elements. As for his sculptures, there’s no bronze or stone in his creations, rather lots of carbon fibre. Like Jeff Koons would use in his pop art pieces.

Murphy’s artistic journey began in New York, where he mentored under iconic painters such as Eric Fischl, David Salle, and Ross Bleckner, and he can now boast an impressive list of celebrity clientele that includes tennis stars Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, actor Ryan Gosling, and Google CEO Larry Page.

A trove of other Brendan Murphy works – including various iterations of Boonji large and small – are currently on exhibition at Gullotti Galleries in Cottesloe, Perth. The exhibition, titled ‘Life is Electric’, features 45 works ranging from vibrant graffiti-style paintings to carbon fibre sculptures. The sculptures alone are priced at an average of AUD$40,000 and these are the ones that are only one or two metres tall… So you can imagine what seven-metre high Boonji standing in Stirling Gardens might fetch for.

A resting Boonji, photo by Antonino Tati.

Murphy, who was in town for the unveiling of Boonji, said at the opening of his exhibition last week that, to him, creating a sculpture is like writing a song – you never know how people are going to react to it, and if they like it, that’s great.

Simple words from a guy whose grand sculptures are currently doing big things the world over.

Antonino Tati

‘Life is Electric’ is currently on exhibit at Gullotti Galleries, 28 Napolean Street, Cottesloe.