Since I reported on Banksy's Disneyland pastiche last week, the art installation-cum theme park in Weston Super Mare has become major international news (seeing American newspapers talking about an abandoned water park in Weston was genuinely surreal right). With popularity, of however, comes detraction, with many (just check the comment section of my original article) claiming the project was little more than an elaborate piece of (admittedly clever) PR from an artist whose oeuvre largely consists of flash-in-the-pan work that's good for a quick laugh, but holds little actual substance.
Banksy's art installation-cum theme park in Weston Super Mare has become major international news
This backlash hasn't stopped the punters lining up in their droves to experience the twisted attraction though. As far as where I stand personally on Dismaland? I'm undecided, but I have tickets booked for the exhibition (because that's what it is really) this coming bank holiday monday (August 31), so might share my thoughts with you then. I will say, however, that it wasn't easy coming by said tickets.
The first batch of Dismaland tickets sold out within hours, which is a remarkable feat for an art project, even one with an unprecedented level of hype surrounding it
Tickets went back on sale at noon on Tuesday morning after the site completely broke down the previous day when 6 million people tried to access it at once! The first batch sold out within hours, which is a pretty remarkable feat for an art project, even one with an unprecedented level of hype surrounding it. It took three hours of reloading and finger crossing for my confirmation to come through, but the whole time I was genuinely debating whether or not the broken website was all part of the project. After all, is there anything more dismal than hammering COMMAND-R over and over again on a Tuesday afternoon where you really should be cracking on with work?
As if the attraction (or should that be anti-attraction?) needed anymore publicity (be it positive or negative, something tells me Banksy really doesn't give a toss), an official, tongue-in-cheek promotional trailer for the park dropped on Tuesday morning on the artist's official YouTube channel. The video stars a typical British family, and follows them on a day out to the family park that features a Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit, a Punch and Judie (or Julie) show from Julie Burchill starring Jimmy Saville, and a model village with a seizure warning. Gulliver's Kingdom, this is not.
The trailer is positively brimming with cynicism, but it also hits its mark with surprising accuracy
As you would expect, it's positively brimming with cynicism, but it also hits its mark with surprising accuracy. Anyone who's ever stayed in a Disney hotel will be familiar with the theme park infomercials that run on a perpetual loop, all of which come complete with the kind of sickly sweet, smug voiceovers that the Dismaland team have managed to completely nail here. The fact that they've managed to keep the voiceover relatively straight creates a wonderful juxtaposition between what we're hearing and what we're seeing (note the faces on the parents as they emerge from Dismaland's Cinderella Castle), and it perfectly encapsulates everything that Dismaland is trying to represent.
An official, tongue-in-cheek promotional trailer for Dismaland dropped on Tuesday morning on Banksy's official YouTube channel
In related news, Banksy supposedly popped up in my own home town of Kidderminster this week, when a graffiti portrait of notorious socialite Paris Hilton appeared on a board outside the former British Heart Foundation store (it burned down last year, typical) sporting the artist's brand. It all turned out to be a lot of fuss over nothing of course, as a local resident stepped forward to claim the work as his own days later, but for a brief moment, Kidderminster actually became attached to the international artistic zeitgeist in an albeit small way. Never thought I'd see the day!
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from the dank and dystopian town of Kidderminster in the UK.
