This 'tin sheet' has significance in material culture due to its role in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games, an important event in the social history of Sydney and NSW. It has the potential to communicate in exhibitions and publications about the Sydney Olympic Games and has historical significance in its design, making, use and in the cultural meanings ascribed to it.

Described by the NSW premier Bob Carr as 'the greatest spectacle Australia has produced', the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games took place at Stadium Australia, Homebush Bay on Friday 15 September 2000.

The opening ceremony was the subject of much public expectation. After years of controversy and insecurity around issues like Ric Birch's infamous kangaroos on bicycles (from the Atlanta closing ceremony) and the recruitment of American musicians in a proposed marching band for Sydney's opening ceremony, it was perceived as a test of Australia's cultural competence. Could Australia deliver a modern, sophisticated performance or were we to embarrass ourselves?

The overwhelmingly positive public response to the opening ceremony inspired a sense of relief among Sydneysiders. In the upsurge of goodwill and excitement (which began when the torch relay arrived in Sydney) the media dropped its negative attacks on the Games' organisers and embraced the extraordinary spirit that had gripped the city. The public had finally claimed ownership of the Games. Cynicism melted away for two weeks as locals revelled in the rare carnival atmosphere.

The opening ceremony had anthems, speeches, oaths, flags, a marching band, pop singers and a parade of the athletes from 199 competing nations. However the daring conceptual sequences ('Deep Sea Dreaming', 'Awakening', 'Nature', 'Tin Symphony', 'Arrivals' and 'Eternity') will be remembered as the ceremony's great imaginative works. Each segment commenced without interruption, following on from the last to form an overall narrative. The purpose was to project a national image to a worldwide audience, to form the world's vision of Australian culture. This image embraced tolerance, social progress, multiculturalism and reconciliation, as well as nature, history and creativity. Designed to stimulate emotional responses from the audience, these segments delivered a refreshing mixture of youth, naivety and larrikinism.

The creative team comprised 13,000 artists and performers, including designers, choreographers, circus artists, costume makers, set builders and painters, singers, composers, writers, arrangers, dancers, musicians. Even more than the high quality costume design, choreography and music, the props were talking points, with the Endeavour tricycle and the Ned Kelly horse attracting the most attention.

The complex and inventive 'Tin Symphony' segment, directed by Nigel Jamieson, involved 850 performers. It examined the impact of Europeans' arrival on the land after 60,000 years of Aboriginal habitation. 'Tin Symphony' began with the arrival on the spectacular Endeavour cycle of Captain Cook and his crew (accompanied by a rabbit). The explorers carried telescopes and sketchbooks, looking in wonder at the flora and fauna. The colonists brought new technologies and materials, symbolised by corrugated iron, metal windmills and steel farming machinery. Even Ned Kelly encased himself in metal, continuing the theme of mechanisation. The segment cleverly linked icons of colonial and rural Australia, such as a gently parodied Captain Cook, resourceful pioneers, Ned Kelly, Irish girls, a sheep-making machine, woodchoppers, corrugated iron, windmills, derricks, water tanks and farm machinery, with modern images of suburbia, lawn mowers and the beach. The segment had an implicit theme of the settlers' humour and resourcefulness in the face of adversity. It ended with the descendents of the settlers - the modern Australian, who has tamed and transformed the land, symbolised by the lawnmower ballet, a kind of serenade to suburbia, its backyards and barbecues.

This 'tin sheet' represented corrugated iron as a signifier of the rural pioneers' construction and resourcefulness.

Dan Potra, Sydney NSW, 1999 The first drawings and early concepts of the 'tin sheets' showed them

meant this would weigh approximately 75kg, too heavy for a performer to carry and handle. Corrugated polycarbonate sheeting was chosen for its durable qualities and its light weight. Since the tin sheets would be danced on, the shoulder straps had to retract so as not to trip up the dancers. The first prototype was made 1.2m wide and 2.4m tall, with a plywood backpack and straps of elastic fed through slots in the plywood. The first prototype had no door or windows. The width seemed too wide to handle comfortably but tests were done of how to use the flexibility to create shapes related to the shacks built with the sheets. The width of the sheet was reduced to 1100mm for ease of lifting the sheet from the ground after the Irish dancing sequence. Tests were also done with extension rods attached to the sheets for lifting into position when making the roof of the tin shacks that were requested. The roof was later designed as a totally separate unit. The door came after much testing on 'shed' work and several tin sheets were fitted with doors.

Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening ceremony, 'Tin Symphony' segment, Stadium Australia, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush, 15 September 2000. This is one of the more than 100 'tin sheets' that appeared on the arena during the 'Tin Symphony' segment, just after the arrival of the Kelly horse and Ned Kelly figures. Each 'tin sheet' was carried on the back of a male handler wearing a white shirt, black trousers and a hat. They carried out a series of choreographed movements. The 'tin sheets' were then placed on the ground in straight lines and the 'Irish girls' danced on the sheets. Then the handlers (known among the ceremonies staff as 'tin men') picked up the sheets and lined them up in a series of large triangles. Some of the sheets were then used to construct 'corrugated iron' rural shacks, complete with outhouse.

Made for and owned by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and donated to the Powerhouse Museum after the Games.

'Tin sheet' with door, performance prop, polycarbonate/ plywood/ metal/ elastic/ cloth, designed by Dan Potra, made by Udo Foerster, Rebecca Schipiliti, Andrew McDonnell, Nic Burton Ceremonies Workshop, used 'Tin Symphony' segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, Sydney, 2000

Two sheets of corrugated polycarbonate sheeting pop riveted together to create a rectangular "tin sheet". On one side of the corrugated polycarbonate sheeting is a panel of plywood with two white webbing straps attached to the plywood to enable the tin sheet to be carried on the back. Built-in door with metal hinges and elastic shoulder straps. The corrugated polycarbonate sheets have been painted silver except for a panel that has been left clear towards the centre. PHM number on corner of corrugated sheeting.

Made: 2000

2001/84/23

2000

1440 mm

40 mm