Funland
An adventure to the heart of arousal
New York, 2014: Funland: Pleasures & Perils of the Erotic Fairground, was an art installation in New York's Museum of Sex featuring a selection of carnival-inspired attractions designed around the sexual subtext of carnivals.
This immersive exhibition, which continues even today as Super Funland: Journey into the Erotic Carnival, originally featured five attractions designed to stimulate all five senses. A mix of physical, visual and olfactory experiences gave audiences a breathless rush of endorphins – akin to those released at the point of orgasm.
Among the interactive experiences, visitors were invited to reach new heights with Jump for Joy, a bouncy castle made of giant, over-sized breasts (watch the slo-mo film here); scale a climbing wall of bodily orifices and appendages in Grope Mountain; and lose themselves in The Tunnel of Love – a mirrored labyrinth through a climactic journey to the Gräfenberg (or 'G-') Spot.
A rich history
To illustrate the rich history of fairground eroticism and to help provide the cultural context for this exhibition, Bompas & Parr collaborated with Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of the UK National Fairground Archive.
To learn more about the historical context behind this exhibition, please read Toulmin’s, As Graceful As They Were Disgraceful: Eroticism and the Fairground.
What the papers say about Funland
‘If this boob bounce house doesn't turn you on to art, we don’t know what will.’
Huffington Post
‘A mixture of vulgarity, playfulness, inventiveness, crudity, childishness and mischievous provocation.'
New York Times
‘Enough to send a teenage boy into spasms.’
Complex Art and Design
‘Like a Willy Wonka sex dream.’
New York Magazine
‘Is this the breast bouncy castle in the world? Huge inflatable made out of boobs'
Irish Mirror
‘None quite compare with Funland, the Museum of Sex’s new carnivalesque mashup of erotica, edibles and architecture.’
The Atlantic
