Exit Through the Gift Shop

Deb 8 Me 9

First off, I like biographies and documentaries and this one appeared to cover a subject I know little about, street art. Street art in this movie is well done graffiti. The movie we went to see was about these guys who paint images in public spaces in the dark of the night (or, guys who vandalize other peoples buildings under the cover of darkness). But the movie was so much more.

There are three or four central players and a lot of cats in the periphery. There’s a guy called Space Invader who makes these neat little mosaics and glues them to surfaces all over London. He has a quirky cousin Thierry who is a maniac behind the video camera, can’t shut it off, videos everything he sees. Thierry tapes Space Invader posting his art and starts taping other people doing it too. Thierry returns to L.A. and continues recording these nefarious exhibits. Soon we are introduced to Shepard Fairy, best known for his Obama portrait that was plastered everywhere in 2008. We get an unusual insight to these accomplished artists and their criminal expressions.

Chief among them is a guy called Banksy, a gutsy graffitist who really has it all. Talent, vision and balls as big as they come. I say that because they show him painting the silhouette of a child being lifted by balloons over the barrier wall on Israel’s West Bank. I mean he’s making a great western statement with loaded mid-eastern machine guns watching. You can tell from his work, this guy is truly phenomenal. And he is the only cat Thierry hasn’t captured on tape.

Here’s the blurb on the movie: Eccentric French shop owner Thierry Guetta attempts to capture the world of graffiti art by following many of the best known vandals at work. In doing so, Thierry tries to locate and befriend Banksy only to have the artist turn the camera back on him.

The movie takes this big 180 turn. It's two movies in one, more for your movie going dollar. Now we are watching Banksy’s movie about Theirry as he tries to create his own art based on what he has witnessed. It was kind of disturbing. The street artists are breaking the law and wrecking people’s property, but I think (at least some of them) are trying to make a statement about law and property by making their mark. This isn’t gang territorial stuff. But this Thierry guy has no artistic statement, skills or sensibilities, just the gifts of P.T. Barnum and a big bankroll. He now calls himself Mr. Brainwash and appears to be what most people think contemporary artists are; sham artists.

Now the film has these two factions, illegal art with integrity and art that is inane but profitable. It’s so great, this is stuff we (as artists) face everyday. People on the street think Picasso is a bad joke but think Kincaid is great; after all, look at how much money he makes. McDonald’s has sold more burgers than anyone, they must be the best burgers.

Now there are two distinct movies going on with some common threads running through them. It ends. You react to it, you think about it and if you’re lucky, you have someone to talk to about it. Soon another picture evolves from the footage and you realize you might not have been watching the movie you thought you were. There was a third movie enveloping the screen that doesn’t get developed until you are out of the theater, out in the dark of night. Give this movie some time and I think you’ll learn a thing or two and have a good time in the process.