Dismaland – Bemusement Park

Many installations are familiar from Burning Man

So, he's become the employer/corporation he regularly criticizes? What's his net worth now? I read its in the millions. So, how much do you pay him to tell you how terrible the world of commerce is? Why does the completely ridiculous and unbelievably commercial world of fine art get a free pass here?

Also, criticizing Disney? Talk about unoriginal attacks and low hanging fruit. What's next? A big expose on McDonalds? Banksy looks like the kind of art you're into when you finally leave home from college and pretend you're this self-liberated rebel with all the answers. I imagine most of his fans will look back onto his cookie-cutter anti-authoritianism and cringe once they get older and realize they, yes, they are the "establishment" he's laughing at, all the way to the bank.

The piece on the events page[1] is Josh Keyes[2]. Another artist that hasn't done anything new in years. It makes me chuckle when artists that claim to be so anti-corporate practice exactly the same techniques of brand management to inflate their bank accounts.

[1] http://dismaland.co.uk/events/ [2] http://www.joshkeyes.net/

PS. I'm not calling them out on hypocrisy, but instead on spending the latter 2/3rds of their careers cashing in as opposed to taking a risk and pushing their work forward.

EDIT: I do not recall much of Josh Keyes' work being anti-corporate in case the wording above appears to sound like I'm saying that. With him is just the typical unoriginal sameness over the last 10 years.

People on tumblr probably don't realise when they are using a Banksy picture, much like they assumed daft punk ripped of Kanye West with harder better faster stronger or that Kanye was helping out an undiscovered musician when he partnered up with Paul McCartney.

Well of course BI are mocking it - their audience is the target of his ire.

Banksy was always more interesting for his visually interesting images and choices of location than his politics though, and some of his best graffiti was literally "about nothing". I've always imagined him as someone who spends his nights as a caped crusader against consumerism but designs print advertising for FMCG companies for a day job...

Anyway, it can't be as unoriginal as the "I'm going to take the highly original step of lampooning Paris Hilton... and fuel demand for an album most of us didn't realise she'd released" stunt he pulled off several years ago. But that got more attention than most of his street art too.

> Dismaland is, quite literally, art about nothing. Consumerism is bad, Disney is evil, advertising is dishonest — we got it.

This is just a completely nonsensical statement. Since when has art been about intellectual knowledge? "Yeah, yeah, trees are beautiful, I get it, stop with the landscape paintings please".

The purpose, at least in this case, is to take something that people already probably know, on an intellectual level, and give them some more visceral reaction to it.

And, to repeat myself from the last thread about this, Banksy is repetitive and cliche-ridden, but if marketing/advertising/campaigning bludgeons the point home (Eat such and such fast food and have a happy relationship with your children! Use such and such deodorant and have a sexy girlfriend! Have you absorbed this political talking point yet!?) it's only fair that people trying to puncture that are allowed the same license to labour the point to the edge of boredom and despair.

That actually sounds like copy from Banksy himself... Are we sure he doesn't moonlight as a "journalist" for BI?

It would seem the art world has finally become weary of Banksy. Some of his works now sell for millions at high brow auction houses all over the world. For someone who espouses the evil of Disney, it looks as though he has a lot in common with the very things he apparently stands against in his art.

Perhaps people are finally seeing the hypocrisy? FYI His net worth is estimated at somewhere north of $20 million:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daniellerahm/2013/10/22/banksy-t...

I imagine the while thing is tongue in cheek.

Reminds me of this old yarn

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>My favourite part was most people there were "normal" people and absolutely loved it.

Why wouldn't they? In your tweet you praise the project as "inclusive" but that is exactly how I would condemn it. Banksy seem to me to be an artist who through iteration has arrived at a near-perfect way of packaging 1960s-inspired rebellion for the summer blockbuster audience. The average summer blockbuster makes you feel exhilarated while you watch it but doesn't have a serious takeaway. For Banksy "exhilarated" is replaced with "clever" and "righteous" but the end result is the equally empty.

There is a wide gap between the poles that are poseur-inviting nihilism of Hurst and Banksy's Upworthy-like quality. I think good art should not stand too close to either of them.

Hirst

If I recall correctly the show is only on until the end of September so I doubt Disney will have time to do much about it before it shuts down.

Pretty certain it would fall under parody/satire so would be protected use, plus given that Banksy is well known around the world I don't see this staying under the radar at all given that the BBC has already covered it.

Plus all the commercialisation you suggest would pretty much be the antithesis of what the event sets out to poke fun at.

> Suggest providing good beer, wine, mixed drinks, and food trucks or similar food merchants

I think you are missing the point.

The initial online ticket booking was (apparently) deliberately broken for the first few days...

It doesn't actually matter if it's deliberate. Your response is part of the play.

£3

"Bemusement"