International man of Mystery and Artist Extrodinare "Banksy" has his own theme park, which in some ways resembles a twisted version of Disneyland...
He describes it as a “family theme park unsuitable for small children” – and with the Grim Reaper whooping it up on the dodgems and Cinderella horribly mangled in a pumpkin carriage crash, it is easy to see why.
Banksy’s new show, Dismaland, which opened on Thursday on the Weston-super-Mare seafront, is sometimes hilarious, sometimes eye-opening and occasionally breathtakingly shocking.
The artist’s biggest project to date had been shrouded in secrecy. Local residents and curious tourists were led to believe that the installations being built in a disused former lido called Tropicana were part of a film set for a Hollywood crime thriller called Grey Fox.
The name is a play on Disneyland, but Banksy insisted the show was not a swipe at Mickey and co. “I banned any imagery of Mickey Mouse from the site,” he said. “It’s a showcase for the best artists I could imagine, apart from the two who turned me down.”
More at the Guardian Warning, the images might not be suitable for young disney fans...
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I feel really indifferent about it. Nothing he has is "shocking" or breaking boundaries, but neither is any of it noteworthy or compelling. I guess he tried?
A commercial artist attacking other commercial artists for being... commercial? Yawn.
Concur with RN.
The art is hardly shocking, it's mostly the "dismal" slogan that was notable, but No Doubt did it years ago with Tragic Kingdom.
Yes, theme parks are commercial enterprises (is that necessarily bad?) but they do bring happiness to tens of millions of people. The last thing the world needs something else to suck the joy out of it, while being all sneery and superior in the process.
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The Washington Post picked up the Guardian article on this (along with a number of other American news outlets). It's way more of any art exhibit than what I would call a theme park. Nonetheless, the imagery is very striking, and does make a pointed attack at society's attitude towards theme parks.