Dismaland – Bemusement Park

Banksy’s Little Mermaid sculpture, outside Cinderella’s castle, complete with algae moat and long queue.

Due to popular demand I am publishing some holiday snaps of my visit to Dismaland.

This is a bemusement park in Weston-super-Mare, England. On until 25th of September 2015. Devised by Banksy, Dismaland consists of an art festival, with works by 57 other contemporary artists; famous, infamous and non-famous. I spent such an enjoyable, thought-provoking day here. There was a mixed crowd of friends and families. I would love to go back in the evening, where DJs and bands such as Pussy Riot, Massive Attack and comedians such as Katherine Ryan perform. I took enough photos to fill a gallery; too many to choose from for here. I plan to make a separate blog-site just to write about some of the contemporary artists. So for now, here is just a taster of the park itself. The photos were so bright that I have actually toned down the colour in some of them.

If you do a web search you will see many more, or look on the Dismaland official website: www.dismaland.co.uk for a list of artists.

Inside Cinderella’s Castle is this walk-round scene by Banksy.

The pumpkin coach has just crashed, the horse and Cinderella are dead and paparazzi are shooting snaps. A strong reminder of Princess Diana. Recent worries too about Duchess Kate and our heirs to the throne being in danger from sneaky news reporters. But more significantly, this is about the disillusionment of fairy tales, that do not end up happily ever after – one of the main themes throughout the park…

The entrance to Dismaland that was once the Tropicana Lido, Weston-super-Mare, England

Family picnic at Water Cannon Creek. An armour plated riot control vehicle built to serve on the streets of Northern Ireland. Equipped with sniper posts, grenade launchers – And a children’s slide.

A working merry-go-round-slaughter-house. A butcher sits on lasagne boxes while a horse hangs from a rack. A comment on the EU meat industry, when we discovered that it was common practice for horse meat to be sold as beef, cooked in processed foods in the biggest of supermarkets.

A walk around the park. The billboard features Prime Minister David Cameron in ‘One percent’ by Peter Kennard & Cat Phillips. To the left ‘Angry Feminist Posters’ by Wasted Rita. To the right the stage and cinema which shows continual award-winning short films.

Photographing Banksy’s ‘The Migrant Boat Pond’

Above left: Close up of models in one of the pond’s migrant boats. Above right: A reworking of a traditional Punch & Judy puppet show written by Julie Burchill, with additional cast Crocodile, PC. PC and Goddess Kali. Ironically this was the only attraction that was not suitable for children – but then neither is the traditional version. It is about violence and abuse of women and children.

Left and below: Part of a series entitled ‘Childhood Gone Wrong’ by USA artist Darren Cullen. Below is a queue for Pocket Money Loans. A comment on high interest loan shark companies that target innocent people. This is really a souvenir shop. Just have a look at the 5000% interest rate.

‘Seagull attacks woman’ by Banksy.

Banksy may have been getting lessons from taxidermist Polly Morgan here.  With depleted fish stocks gulls have been attacking tourists, especially if they have take-out food. Dismaland staff must have had job descriptions to be as miserable and unhelpful as possible. They were actually very funny.

Here some young ones playing on a helicopter crashed onto a mini golf course, with an oil spill in the back ground.

Getting chilly: Visitors wait at the “Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit.” Each day one of his novels is ceremonially burned.

That’s it for now. I shall update this post when I have time to create a new site about Art. It will contain photos of Damien Hirst’s Pickled Unicorn, Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė’s embroidered cars, Jessica Harrison’s Tattooed Porcelain Dolls and Jimmy Cauty’s Aftermath Dislocation Principle model village – to name just a few artists featured at Dismaland.

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015 by southamptonoldlady Categories: art, Decaying Old Grandeur, Festivals, People, Photo Art, Signs, street, War, WomenTags: abuse, Architecture, art, austerity, Banksy, Billionaires, Britain, Cameron, city garden, crime, Dismaland, Division of Wealth, England, europe, Feminist, graffiti, gulls, Holiday, loans, meat, migrants, paparazzi, Royalty 28 Comments