Dismaland is Banksy’s dangerous molotov cocktail of pop culture rip-offs

Banksy’s pop up exhibition Dismaland in Weston super-Mare in Somerset this weekend  is a dangerous and provocative molotov cocktail of pop culture references, Eurozone politics, rabid consumerism, and Disney fetishism exposed for our bemusement.

Graffiti artist Banksy along with fellow art legends Damien Hirst, Jimmy Cauty and Jenny Holzer have taken over a derelict beachside lido – Tropicana in Weston super-Mare for a five week pop-up exhibition.

“I loved the Tropicana as a kid, so getting to throw these doors open again is a real honour” – BANKSY

This ironical and pitch black humorous and disturbing place lampoons the different aspects of our society that disturb and frighten us the most.

Among all of the death, decay and creepiness in Dismaland, we can glimpse at a genuine assessment of the damage that humans do to the world.

Banksy was asked about the theme of the park, to which he quipped “Perhaps theme parks should have bigger themes”.

Some of the exhibits

A seemingly innocuous fairground game turns into a sinister effort to rescue rubber ducks covered what appears to be brown crude oil from a tank of water. The prize if you’re successful is a fish finger in a plastic bag.

The British horsemeat scandal of a few years ago is theatrically depicted by a man in a hazmat suit who circles around on the merry-go-round covered in blood and holding a box of lasagnas.

There’s a remote control boat that you can control as it zips through a corpse filled pool. A clear reference to the Syria crisis.

A Cinderella crashes in her pumpkin carriage. She’s photographed while dying by papparazzi as her avian fairy godmothers attempt in vain to save her.

I really wish I was living in the UK right now so I could go and see this.

Banksey like many other great artists is able to expose, comment upon and therefore dismantle the traditional power structures of our world. He is our modern day Robin Hood giving us all back something we didn’t know we were missing.

If Disney characters were given Vicodin and put to bed for 30 years. This is the life they would wake up to discover. An existence devoid of meaning and undeniably dismal. Whichever way you look at it, it’s life-changing art.

Here’s where to find it:

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