DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
• Described as a “dystopian theme park”, the Dismaland Bemusement Park has recently opened its doors in the UK seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare near Bristol. A pop-up art installation created in a derelict lido by world-renowned artist Banksy, Dismaland features a ruinous take on the Disneyland castle, a model village where there’s a riot in progress, a pool around which visitors can steer groups of asylum seekers, rather bored looking attendants, and even ticket problems (although these are reportedly not supposed to be part of the experience). The installations are commentaries on recent events so the fun, if there is any to be had at an attraction described as the UK’s “most disappointing new visitor attraction”, is in guessing which event they refer to. Open until late September.
• A $2 million painting had a hole punched in it in Taiwan this week when a visiting 12-year-old boy tripped and fell. The 350-year-old work, Flowers, by Italian Paolo Porpora, was left with a fist-sized hole but the exhibition’s organisers reportedly said they will not ask his family to cover the cost of repairs.
• Falling into a black hole doesn’t mean it’s necessarily curtains, according to world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. While it has been long assumed that the massive gravitational forces in a black hole would destroy all matter sucked inside, Hawking reportedly told scientists in Sweden that he believed matter could escape and may even pop up in another dimension (a story that gives greater credence to films like 2014’s Interstellar). “If you feel you are in a black hole, don”t give up, there”s a way out,” he said in a speech at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
