Warhol repeated iconic images until they became meaningless, but there was still something iconic about them. Thierry really makes them meaningless. – Banksy
“Exit Through The Gift Shop” was a movie that I had been meaning to watch for a long time, so long, in fact, that I started getting nervous about it since I’m like that. I have this weird thing where I get scared to watch things some times because they won’t live up to be expectations, it’s a totally creepy, random thing about my personality, so of course I just posted it on my blog. Anyway, the tag line for the movie is “The world’s first Street Art disaster movie …” which is really accurate. It starts out as Thierry Guetta’s story of becoming obsessed with his video camera, discovering that his cousin is street art icon Space Invader, and setting out to meet Banksy. Then it rapidly turns into Banksy taking over the film (in the time line, he’s credited as the director), inadvertently turning the already eccentric Guetta into a major street artist (Mister Brainwash) overnight, and regretting it. I have to confess it’s utterly fascinating and Banksy really seems to hold back with his comments, maybe not to seem catty, but the quote at the top of the page is perfect. Guetta almost tricks Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and others into mentoring him by 1) appearing to be a crazy but well meaning doofus 2) making himself indispensable. Then he simply hires artists to do all the footwork (a la Warhol) combines Banksy, Fairey, and Warhol’s styles, and throws himself a giant art show. Art collectors, the morons that they generally are (and I say this as an art collector), see the endorsements from his famous friends and sell the show out to the tune of over $1 million. By the end of the documentary I really disliked Guetta for devaluing both modern art, street art, and just art in general, all at the same time. However, you also hate art collectors and fans for being such rubes that you don’t really end up feeling bad for anyone. Except perhaps Bankey, Fairey, and the others who honed their skills over years while building a reputation only to have a hanger on come in a become famous overnight (unless you count the years of assistance as an apprenticeship, perhaps you do).
In the end though the movie is wonderful to watch because of the information on the growth of the street art movement and all the wonderful behind the scenes footage for the creation of these pieces, I could not get enough of it, just as much as I couldn’t care less about Mister Brainwash.
~ Brigitte
