A Trip To Dismaland: Everything That Disneyland is Not

A quick look at Banksy’s new art insatallation: a dystopian amusement park that tells uncomfortable truths.

“An escape from mindless escapism” - Banksy (Courtesy: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

Challenging the notion that art is apolitical, English graffiti artist, Banksy, has made political street art his or her statement. Identity unknown, Banksy is an enigma, and is as much an idea as an artist. Numerous theories trying to determine Banksy’s gender have been inconclusive; nobody knows for sure whether Banksy is a man or a woman. However, the one thing that pages and pages of inconclusive studies have cleared is that Banksy, the person, is secondary to the art that is his or her expression.

A Palestinian boy walks past a drawing by British graffiti artist Banksy, along part of the controversial Israeli barrier near the Kalandia checkpoint in the West Bank (Photo: Reuters)

Banksy’s latest is a big project. ‘Dismaland’ is an installation at Weston-super-Mare, at a seafront site. An exhibition on urban decay and a far from subtle comment on consumerist culture, Banksy’s Dismaland is a simultaneously bleak and comic take on Disneyland and all that it represents. The photographs are arresting in their starkness.

A fish out of water (Courtesy: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

Here’s Banksy’s take on the Little Mermaid, in front of a decrepit almost-Disney castle

A discordant nightmare (Photo: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

Banksy represents the flipside of urbanisation and surveillance, and his ‘bemusement’ park is reminiscent of T S Eliot’s Wasteland; both bitter comments on the reality of the world we live in.

A 21st century Wasteland, reminiscent of T S Eliot (Source: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

A comment on complacency.

Banksy is judging you (Source: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

Destroying childhoods with a reality check: Banksy’s “family amusement park, unsuitable for small children.”

Financial transactions (Source: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

Here is an incredibly clever one on David Cameron.

Political propaganda, anyone? (Source: Banksy Dismaland/ Facebook)

And finally, self awareness, done the Banksy way.

Unpleasant realisations; sold as merchandise (Source: Banksy Dismaland/Facebook)