The crazy golf course inspired by capitalism, crocodiles and police brutality

Leisure Land Golf is the brainchild of Doug Fishbone, who commissioned fellow artists to design each of the holes and the installation will be open to visitors to play throughout the summer.

The American-born, London-based artist was in York yesterday to oversee the arrival of the course, including the hole which he designed. It features a model of the Costa Concordia which capsized and sank in the waters off Tuscany in 2015 resulting in the deaths of 32 people on board.

“The work was originally shown at the Venice Biennial in 2015. It’s a city whose economy is reliant on the big cruise ships, but they are also destroying the Venetian lagoons and I wanted to create something which made people stop and think.

“The best contemporary art doesn’t need to take itself too seriously in order to talk about serious issues. If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s, whether it was here or in the States, the chances are you grew up playing crazy golf and I just thought it was a good way of getting people, particularly children, interacting with art.

“Each of the artists who took part was asked to create a hole on the theme of globalisation. That’s a pretty wide brief and I think the course reflects that. Hetain Patel’s hole is particularly striking and is inspired by the industrial production line.

“You have to get the ball to a conveyor belt and then hand-crank it up to the mouth of a grass-covered crouching man. The ball disappears for few seconds and it probably won’t come as any surprise where it eventually comes out.”

Elsewhere on the course there is a hole by John Akomfrah which takes its inspiration from the police brutality suffered by some African American youngsters in the US.

Perhaps appropriately given the current political climate, the final hole is a floating scale map of the UK. Designed by Ellie Harrison it offers a safe haven to immigrant golf balls that successful make it across the water.

Mr Fishbone added: “Some people will come, putt a few balls and that will be enough. I hope other people though will take the time to look at the work and think about what it means. The beauty of it is the fact it doesn’t beat anyone around the head with political or social issues.”

Leisure Land Golf has been brought to the city following a successful £10,000 crowdfunding campaign launched by the gallery in partnership with the Art Fund’s Art Happens project.

Laura Turner, senior curator at York Art Gallery, said: “None of us knew what the response would be, but we were quite overwhelmed.

“Our chief executive Reyahn King had seen Doug’s golf course in Venice and thought it might work here. All the holes are playable and what’s great is that it attracts so many different people.

“The gardens here have been open for two years, but because they are at the back of the gallery they are still a bit of a hidden gem, but we hope Doug’s work will encourage more people to come and have a look.”