Nic
Strata Poster
If theme parks are about escaping reality and (for the most part) forgetting the bad things in life, then Dismaland is about presenting the exact opposite. The Anti Theme Park, if you will. Whilst I don’t subscribe to Banksy’s theory that “Theme parks should have bigger themes” it is interesting to see “what if”.
Actually, the one thing that any real theme park would be proud of was the operations on site. Outside was a large system of well labelled cattlepens. Yes, the queue was huge, but once the doors opened, it moved quickly. Bag and ticket checks were handled efficiently. Once inside, queues generally weren't much of an issue either. They tended to fluctuate, meaning that if something had a long queue, you could come back later and it would've died down. The biggest and slowest moving queues seemed to be for food and drink, but then, it was lunch time.
Those complaining that Banksy is making an anti-capitalist statement whilst charging an entry fee should probably do some sums. 6,000 people a day (if it even is that many - I've seen reports suggesting it's fewer) at £3 a head for 6 weeks is £756,000. Factor in how much it cost to build the works and transport it all to site, hire security staff and rent fences and toilets, not to mention stuff like insurance... I'm sure there's not a whole lot of money left over.
You enter through a mock airport-style security checkpoint, where everything is made of cardboard.
This is where I first started to laugh as I saw some of the ideas for merchandise
Once inside, you're handed a real life, actual park map!
One of the first pieces you notice is the woman being attacked by seagulls. Its actually really effective. Although, getting a photo of it without some randomer sitting on the bench next to her is nearly impossible
Thinking of it as a "what if" scenario, and poking a bit of fun at the sugary, money grabbing nature of parks I found the vast majority of it all just really funny. This, in particular
(It was a bit ridiculous though when, later on, people were actually having a go - chucking ping pong balls about)
Looking across the park does give quite an impressive view. Even though it's not a massive area, they've managed to cram quite a lot in.
The Tropicana is the ideal venue, with its broken tiles and crumbling walls providing the perfect backdrop.
Certain parts of the park do look eerily familiar - the police van obviously reminding me of Swarm island. This is where some have argued that, actually, theme parks DO have dark themes. Yes, of course they do, but they're all still based on fantasy scenarios (aliens, time travel etc) Whilst some of the imagery may end up being similar, I do thank that's what sets this apart - the basis in real world possibilities.
The right side of the park was probably my least favourite, as this seemed to be where most of the strongest political statements were concentrated. Whilst I did enjoy a few bits, most of it just seemed to be about shoving anti-establishment propaganda down your throat. (I didn't take pics of the worst offending bits, as I couldn't even be arsed)
That said, I did enjoy the "Pocket Money Loan Store". Like the best bits of the park, it got its point across using humour, rather than just feeling like a protest march.
At the back, you'll find one of the most widely publicised works
As a free-standing structure, I found it quite impressive to look at, but I can't really get excited over the "message" behind it.
The one thing that really made me think "I can see this turning up in a real park!" was the picnic benches. OK, so they have the potential to be a health and safety nightmare, but I think they're fab.
In the back, left hand corner of the park was a large screen and seating area showing video art. They played the "green is not a creative colour" thing. It made me think of Ploddish <3
Like any good theme park, Dismaland has its own costume characters. There were several different ones. They just trudged around the park. Every now and then, you'd look up and see one of them whiz past on one of the rides, just sitting there, motionless. I liked that.
There was a tent full of stuff. It was weird. I didn't really get it. That said, the unicorn was cool, and I can imagine nadroJ serving me tea using that crockery.
As it is an actual park, obviously it has rides. There's a big wheel
A carousel
...and this, which I was gutted wasn't operating when I was there
Around an about, there's a bunch of other Banksy stuff too
Heading into the main building, you first find yourself in a dark room with a few light-based exhibits. I like the one of the drawing board. Onto it was projected an animation of stuff being drawn on the board. It was pretty cool (although, obviously, looks **** in photos)
Next up was the single funniest piece in the whole piece. This was in the form of a show running every 15 minutes called "Dancing with death" (or words to that effect). In short, The Grim Reaper rides round on a dodgem car, dancing to "Staying Alive". It's so cheesy and ridiculous, I just loved it. I took a video, but its too crap to even bother uploading.
From there you're ushered into what is essentially a very traditionally arranged art gallery.
The biggest piece is the Damien Hirst. It's not immediately obvious from the photos, but that's an actual (albeit HUGE) beach ball suspended in mid air by nothing other than a flow of air from an upwards pointing fan. Those knives look pretty real too (backed up by the fact they had two staff members guarding it at any one time). I couldn't care less what it means, I just really like the concept. I also really enjoyed thinking about it for a while afterwards with questions like "What happens at night? Do they just leave the fans running?", "What happens in a power cut?" etc.
Among my favourites were the paintings of weirdly post-apocalyptic Disney parks. After a little bit of research when I got home, the artist is based in Cali, and has previously done his own exhibition called "Dismayland". I particularly loved the one of California Adventure, mainly because it's such a recognisable vista (but partly because, in years gone by at least, how many people would've loved this to actually happen! haha)
My other favourites were these paintings. Yes, paintings. I had to actually stick my face up pretty close to them to double check they weren't photos
There was a bunch of other stuff too. Some of it was cool. Some of it was just annoying.
At the far end, was another room hosting a "model village". It depicts a town in the aftermath of some kind of crazy disaster/unrest, where the only people around are police.
My favourite thing in there was this, stuck to the wall
Back outside, and that only really leaves us with the main focal point of the park - the castle. Every bit as "impressive" as the real Disneyland castle, it provided the perfect centrepiece.
Just inside the entrance, there's a TV screen playing clips from Disney's Cinderella (the animated one, l'obv), then you walk through into the main room. As you'll have probably seen in the press, inside is a huge model of Cinderella hanging out the side of her crashed pumpkin coach, being photographed by paparazzi. The room is completely dark apart from the "camera flashes" which actually makes it pretty hard to navigate. Like most of the exhibits, there's no velvet rope, or glass case - you can walk right up to, even in between, the parts of the exhibit. That doesn't really come across in the press footage. Neither does the number of paps, or the fact that there's several actual mopeds parked up around the place (that they've just "driven to the scene" on). I watched as one woman bumped into, then subsequently apologised to, one of the dummies - it was actually pretty hard to tell who was real and who wasn't. I'm in absolutely no way precious about Diana (Halloween hand on the memorial rock, anyone?), but the way it was staged did give the whole thing a pretty intense atmosphere. Again, that something that the press coverage really hadn't prepared me for.
As with any good tourist attraction, to leave the park you "exit through the gift shop". The merch was not very exciting, and mostly quite expensive.
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit. Yes, I am a closet lover of modern art, but I don't think I'd have bothered to visit if it wasn't for the theme. Whilst a few bits did make me roll my eyes, I didn't expect to find it half as funny as I actually did. With only a week and a bit left to run, if you can find a chance to visit, I'd recommend it. Stop banging on about how pretentious it is for a couple of minutes, and who knows, you might even actually enjoy it!
Actually, the one thing that any real theme park would be proud of was the operations on site. Outside was a large system of well labelled cattlepens. Yes, the queue was huge, but once the doors opened, it moved quickly. Bag and ticket checks were handled efficiently. Once inside, queues generally weren't much of an issue either. They tended to fluctuate, meaning that if something had a long queue, you could come back later and it would've died down. The biggest and slowest moving queues seemed to be for food and drink, but then, it was lunch time.
Those complaining that Banksy is making an anti-capitalist statement whilst charging an entry fee should probably do some sums. 6,000 people a day (if it even is that many - I've seen reports suggesting it's fewer) at £3 a head for 6 weeks is £756,000. Factor in how much it cost to build the works and transport it all to site, hire security staff and rent fences and toilets, not to mention stuff like insurance... I'm sure there's not a whole lot of money left over.
You enter through a mock airport-style security checkpoint, where everything is made of cardboard.
This is where I first started to laugh as I saw some of the ideas for merchandise
Once inside, you're handed a real life, actual park map!
One of the first pieces you notice is the woman being attacked by seagulls. Its actually really effective. Although, getting a photo of it without some randomer sitting on the bench next to her is nearly impossible
Thinking of it as a "what if" scenario, and poking a bit of fun at the sugary, money grabbing nature of parks I found the vast majority of it all just really funny. This, in particular
(It was a bit ridiculous though when, later on, people were actually having a go - chucking ping pong balls about)
Looking across the park does give quite an impressive view. Even though it's not a massive area, they've managed to cram quite a lot in.
The Tropicana is the ideal venue, with its broken tiles and crumbling walls providing the perfect backdrop.
Certain parts of the park do look eerily familiar - the police van obviously reminding me of Swarm island. This is where some have argued that, actually, theme parks DO have dark themes. Yes, of course they do, but they're all still based on fantasy scenarios (aliens, time travel etc) Whilst some of the imagery may end up being similar, I do thank that's what sets this apart - the basis in real world possibilities.
The right side of the park was probably my least favourite, as this seemed to be where most of the strongest political statements were concentrated. Whilst I did enjoy a few bits, most of it just seemed to be about shoving anti-establishment propaganda down your throat. (I didn't take pics of the worst offending bits, as I couldn't even be arsed)
That said, I did enjoy the "Pocket Money Loan Store". Like the best bits of the park, it got its point across using humour, rather than just feeling like a protest march.
At the back, you'll find one of the most widely publicised works
As a free-standing structure, I found it quite impressive to look at, but I can't really get excited over the "message" behind it.
The one thing that really made me think "I can see this turning up in a real park!" was the picnic benches. OK, so they have the potential to be a health and safety nightmare, but I think they're fab.
In the back, left hand corner of the park was a large screen and seating area showing video art. They played the "green is not a creative colour" thing. It made me think of Ploddish <3
Like any good theme park, Dismaland has its own costume characters. There were several different ones. They just trudged around the park. Every now and then, you'd look up and see one of them whiz past on one of the rides, just sitting there, motionless. I liked that.
There was a tent full of stuff. It was weird. I didn't really get it. That said, the unicorn was cool, and I can imagine nadroJ serving me tea using that crockery.
As it is an actual park, obviously it has rides. There's a big wheel
A carousel
...and this, which I was gutted wasn't operating when I was there
Around an about, there's a bunch of other Banksy stuff too
Heading into the main building, you first find yourself in a dark room with a few light-based exhibits. I like the one of the drawing board. Onto it was projected an animation of stuff being drawn on the board. It was pretty cool (although, obviously, looks **** in photos)
Next up was the single funniest piece in the whole piece. This was in the form of a show running every 15 minutes called "Dancing with death" (or words to that effect). In short, The Grim Reaper rides round on a dodgem car, dancing to "Staying Alive". It's so cheesy and ridiculous, I just loved it. I took a video, but its too crap to even bother uploading.
From there you're ushered into what is essentially a very traditionally arranged art gallery.
The biggest piece is the Damien Hirst. It's not immediately obvious from the photos, but that's an actual (albeit HUGE) beach ball suspended in mid air by nothing other than a flow of air from an upwards pointing fan. Those knives look pretty real too (backed up by the fact they had two staff members guarding it at any one time). I couldn't care less what it means, I just really like the concept. I also really enjoyed thinking about it for a while afterwards with questions like "What happens at night? Do they just leave the fans running?", "What happens in a power cut?" etc.
Among my favourites were the paintings of weirdly post-apocalyptic Disney parks. After a little bit of research when I got home, the artist is based in Cali, and has previously done his own exhibition called "Dismayland". I particularly loved the one of California Adventure, mainly because it's such a recognisable vista (but partly because, in years gone by at least, how many people would've loved this to actually happen! haha)
My other favourites were these paintings. Yes, paintings. I had to actually stick my face up pretty close to them to double check they weren't photos
There was a bunch of other stuff too. Some of it was cool. Some of it was just annoying.
At the far end, was another room hosting a "model village". It depicts a town in the aftermath of some kind of crazy disaster/unrest, where the only people around are police.
My favourite thing in there was this, stuck to the wall
Back outside, and that only really leaves us with the main focal point of the park - the castle. Every bit as "impressive" as the real Disneyland castle, it provided the perfect centrepiece.
Just inside the entrance, there's a TV screen playing clips from Disney's Cinderella (the animated one, l'obv), then you walk through into the main room. As you'll have probably seen in the press, inside is a huge model of Cinderella hanging out the side of her crashed pumpkin coach, being photographed by paparazzi. The room is completely dark apart from the "camera flashes" which actually makes it pretty hard to navigate. Like most of the exhibits, there's no velvet rope, or glass case - you can walk right up to, even in between, the parts of the exhibit. That doesn't really come across in the press footage. Neither does the number of paps, or the fact that there's several actual mopeds parked up around the place (that they've just "driven to the scene" on). I watched as one woman bumped into, then subsequently apologised to, one of the dummies - it was actually pretty hard to tell who was real and who wasn't. I'm in absolutely no way precious about Diana (Halloween hand on the memorial rock, anyone?), but the way it was staged did give the whole thing a pretty intense atmosphere. Again, that something that the press coverage really hadn't prepared me for.
As with any good tourist attraction, to leave the park you "exit through the gift shop". The merch was not very exciting, and mostly quite expensive.
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit. Yes, I am a closet lover of modern art, but I don't think I'd have bothered to visit if it wasn't for the theme. Whilst a few bits did make me roll my eyes, I didn't expect to find it half as funny as I actually did. With only a week and a bit left to run, if you can find a chance to visit, I'd recommend it. Stop banging on about how pretentious it is for a couple of minutes, and who knows, you might even actually enjoy it!
