The City of Yarra in Melbourne has unveiled its newest art installation and you all better be sitting down for this, because it’s a real doozy.
Full disclosure, this just be the most batshit insane article I write all year.
Please come along with me on this journey as together we look for the answer to an age-old question: ‘what the actual fuck?’
Titled ‘Fallen Fruit’, this human-sized work is many things: a half-peeled banana, a skull and absolutely the stuff of my worst nightmares.
Do you find this artwork a-peeling? 🍌
The City of Yarra has come under fire for spending $22,000 on a sculpture of a banana. #9News pic.twitter.com/z56DhkSdET
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) November 26, 2021
The project’s creator, Adam Stone, explained that the piece (which popped up in Rose St) was “dealing with the unstainable excess” of western society.
To be fair, that quote is probably the most Fitzroy thing he could’ve said.
Say what you will about Stone and his big banana but he knows his plant-based, corduroy-wearing demographic very well.
City of Yarra Council wasted $22,000 of Victorian taxpayers money on a scary banana sculpture. #Victoria #Fitzroy #CityOfYarra #Council #Taxpayers #Waste #TheGreens #TAC #Banana #VicPol #VicVotes https://t.co/E4KgjKd1l6
— Jobsen Groth 🇦🇺 (@JobsenGroth) November 26, 2021
The City of Yarra has trendy suburbs such as Collingwood, Abbotsford and Fitzroy North, suburbs that are known for breaking the stylistic mould and doing things a little differently. So a big, peeled banana probably isn’t much of a leap, really.
However, critics of the project and its $22,000 price tag funded by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) have questioned whether this might’ve been a potassium-filled bridge too far.
I don’t know about you but if saw this banana while driving, I’d probably be needing my own accident commission.
Samantha Cockfield, the Head of Road Safety at TAC, swore ignorance and said they were not aware the art they’d commissioned was going to be a big, terrifying banana.
Samantha pls. What did you think it was gonna be? A papaya?
She continued “the entire project is doing its job. It’s slowing down people. We know it helps delineate where people are walking and using places to live,” which may just be the biggest stretch I’ve witnessed since the last time I pulled my hammy.
Whether we like it or not, Australia now has its second Big Banana with the original in New South Wales.
So, if you find yourself passing by Fitzroy this weekend, I hope you also feel encouraged to deal with the unsustainable excess of western society.
