Big-Eyed Monsters

One night walking home down Chapel St a couple of years ago, I took photos of the cutest, most monstrous ‘window art’ I ever did see.

The Chapel St Precinct runs for about 2km, and the shops run the gamut from high end designer boutiques to inexpensive chainstores. About a quarter of the way down from the top end there was a strange little empty shop that seemed to have once upon a time sold support hosiery for the disabled. I remember dusty legs encased in elasticised fabric displayed in the front window.

This was quite amusing, but it was the windows themselves that caught my attention: they were plastered over with these quaint drawings of toothy monsters, with pink paint dribbling down like gore. Their faces were dominated by ferocious eyes, wicked little grins and a multitude of patterns.

I say ‘were’, because sadly the legs are gone and the monsters have been scraped off. The store is now, I believe, a luxury leathergoods boutique.