Awful Fun

correctly? View it in your browser. Welcome to Dismaland Colossal founder and editor-in-chief Christopher Jobson was in Weston-super-Mare, UK this past week for a first look at Banksy's dystopian theme park, Dismaland. Mysterious construction at the site—including that of a dingy, Disney-like castle—built enormous anticipation over the last month, all leading to the reveal of what is the fabled artist and provocateur's largest project to date. So just what's hidden inside the walls of this derelict seaside resort? Along with 10 artworks from Bansky, there's a demented assortment of bizarre and beautiful artworks from no less than 58 global artists including Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Jimmy Cauty, Bill Barminski, and many, many others. There's also a ridiculously awesome lineup of bands and DJs set to play the park, including Pussy Riot and Massive Attack on September 25th. Allowed into the park for a very brief walkthrough before the wider public, Jobson was able to capture some fantastic shots of many of the works on view. He also had the honor of helping to curate a program of 24 short films to be shown at a massive outdoor cinema, played on a loop day and night. Dismaland will be open to the public until September 27th. Ticket information can be found at the official Dismaland website.      Trompe L'Oeil Ceramics That Imitate the Natural Appearance of Decaying Wood Ceramicist Christopher David White accurately captures the decay of wood through ceramics, portraying the distinct character of the natural material from the fine wood grain to the light ash coloration at the pieces' edges. By utilizing a trompe l'oeil technique, White forces the viewer to take a closer look at his work while also investigating the truth hidden in the hyperrealistic sculptures.   A Hypnotic Infinite Model Train Loop that Travels Rapidly in Either Direction Model train enthusiast James Risner decided to turn several toy locomotive sets into a contemporary kinetic art installation of sorts by creating an infinite loop. The seven linked trains can travel forward or backward at surprisingly quick speed, creating a hypnotic spiral of of motion.   Fashion Illustrations with Embroidered Accents and Accessories by Izziyana Suhaimi Singapore-based artist Izziyana Suhaimi introduces embroidered accents to her carefully rendered pencil and watercolor illustrations. Patterns of flowers unfold much like a tapestry across the paper canvas creating pieces she refers to as "evidence of the hand and of time." For her series The Looms in Our Bones Suhaimi focuses mostly on fashion accessories where scarves, hats, and other clothing is depicted in thread.   A Visit Inside One of the Only Hand-crafted Globe Studios in the World With the power to zoom in and out of up-to-date satellite images of the entire world via tools like Google Earth, we've lost some of the romantic quality of spinning a finely crafted globe to pinpoint a destination or track our travels. Enter Peter Bellerby and his company Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, who create exceptional globes by hand.   Ferrolic: A Clock with a Liquid Face Powered by Magnetism With Ferrolic designer Zelf Koelman has merged time and liquid. Ferrolic, a self-contained clock that literally displays time with liquid, utilizes a liquid that becomes strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field (ferrofluid) to display recognizable shapes in response to magnets embedded inside the clock's aluminum frame. It's almost exactly what would happen if a digital clock and a lava lamp had a baby.   Welder Scott Raabe Places Interlocking Patterns of Molten Metal Between Pipes For Scott Raabe, his craft lies is in the very fine details—the intersection between pipes and other cuts of metal one might typically glance over without a second thought. It's in these fine crevices that Raabe welds layered patterns, using his seven years of expertise to create interlocking designs that seem to glow a metallic rainbow sheen after being welded.   Too Cool For School: 15% Off Pencils, Pens, and Supplies at the Colossal Shop Here in Chicago we had to break out our hoodies for the first time in a long while, which can mean only one thing: we have poor circulation and are easily chilled. But it also means that summer is, shockingly, approaching its end and the kids are about to head back to school. To make the transition a little easier, we're offering our beautiful, amazing newsletter subscribers 15% off a whole bunch of tools for getting things done. Grab a few of Palomino's absurdly nice Blackwings and watercolor pencils, get all kinds of things done with the Messograf multi-tool, and store them all in Winter Session's top notch Roll-Ups. Use the sale code BackToWork at checkout.