POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Banana Gymnast' performance costume designed by Jennifer Irwin

Object No. 2001/84/136

The Banana Gymnast costume was designed by Jennifer Irwin and manufactured in the Ceremonies Costume Workshop. It features a yellow unitard and nylon lycra suit and a teddy bear headdress. It was used in the 'Bananas in Pyjamas' section of the Icons segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. It was one of a number of identical costumes worn by school children dancing around the base of the Bananas In Pyjamas float, which paid homage to the ABC children's television program of the same name. The closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games took place on Sunday 1 October at Stadium Australia, Homebush Bay. It included solemn formalities, an informal parade of athletes and a farewell party that took the form of an unregimented parade with floats that celebrated and often mocked aspects of Australian popular culture. The intention was to conduct the ceremony with decorum until the extinction of the Olympic flame, and then to unleash a party. The artistic director of the closing ceremony David Atkins explained 'The athletes have finished competition, and are ready to party, and we have set about creating a party to end all parties. We have decided to invite everyone into our giant Australian backyard - fully equipped with Hills Hoists, barbecues, an eclectic mix of music, performers and all manner of Australiana. Australians have a tradition of throwing great parties, and this one will be imbued with a sense of fun, larrikinism and goodwill.' According to Ric Birch (speaking on Channel 7's 'Olympic Sunrise'), the opening ceremony was to represent Australia at large, but the closing ceremony was Sydney's show. After Vanessa Amorosi's performance of 'Absolutely Everybody', the arena was transformed into a huge dance- floor as 960 ballroom dancing couples in fluorescent costumes danced the samba, tango and jive to the beat of John Paul Young singing 'Love is in the Air'. Although there was no direct allusion to the film 'Strictly Ballroom', the link was implied. The dancers were accompanied by 208 giant dancing feet and the incongruous assembly of oversized kewpie dolls while in mid-field the athletes formed a huge conga line. As the ceremony unfolded the proliferation of suburban images such as Hills Hoists, blowflies, lifesavers and thongs was treated with self-deprecating irony rather than clich‚. The wit and quality of the 'Parade of Icons' showed the influence of the late Peter Tully artistic director of the Mardi Gras. For example, the 'pit chicks' in silver hot pants who carried large eyelash props, the stiletto shoe bikes and giant mascara for the Priscilla bus. The opening ceremony told a mythic story of nation-building that dwarfed individuals. It was evocative and subtle. The closing ceremony, however, celebrated personality, celebrity and attitude. Loud and brash, more like a rock concert than a profoundly theatrical event, it was an extravagant send-off -- fun, festive, shamelessly excessive and, for an international audience, decidedly weird. The Banana Gymnasts danced alongside the Bananas In Pyjamas float as part of the Icons section of the Closing Ceremony.