“The whole movement of art is about brainwashing,” says Guetta Thierry, climbing up a ladder from its place on a rooftop in the middle of Los Angeles to paste an enormous stencil of himself up on a plain white wall. His opinion goes that all of this “art” is thrown at our faces, telling us to OBEY or using simplistic imagery in prolific places to manipulate what feelings are conjured up just by looking at simple symbolism. As the film speeds through images of downtown LA, London, France, and countless other locations bursting at the seams with what some call vandalism and others call street art, I can’t help but find truth in his words.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary, if one could even call it that, exploring the lives of street artists or “graffiti rats” and featuring the now internationally renowned Banksy, a mysterious artist who has showcased his own work on walls, billboards, and art galleries (usually illegally) all around the world. The film begins as a story on Frenchman Guetta Thierry, an eccentric man with an obsession on filming everything in the world around him. Never is he without the aid of his video camera, to the amusement or annoyance of the people around him. His film features his day-to-day life: working in his store, walking down the street, dinner with his family, and so on. Thierry’s life takes a dramatic turn however, when he stumbles upon his cousin creating tiny tile pieces of “pixilated” art to mimic famous 8-bit video games, only to glue them up on public walls, overpasses, and anywhere he knew people would walk by. His cousin, nicknamed Invader after the Space Invaders he so lovingly recreates in his work, becomes Thierry’s first glimpse and gateway into his new obsession of street art.
Thierry’s fascination continues to grow as the movie progresses, showing him traveling to the underground hotspots of street art for weeks and months at a time in order to connect with, befriend, and film hours upon hours of footage featuring these artists making their voices heard through their spray cans and stencils. His obsession hits its peak when he miraculously has the chance to meet Banksy, who at this point has already made his name as a legend to the public eye for his bold, eye-catching, and often thought-provoking pieces. As time passes, they become friends and soon Banksy is the one turning the camera on Thierry as the camera man evolves into a wannabe street artist and eventually a front page in the LA newspapers. It is at this point that Banksy comes to the conclusion that Thierry may not be more than a raving madman, an empty vessel who has let his obsession carry him along into thinking that any random obscenity he places on a street corner could be at the same level as the graffiti artists he once followed with great enthusiasm. Now, the question is presented to the audience as Banksy wonders, who is he to determine what art is? How can we separate a “genius” from a “madman”?
At first, as exemplified by Thierry’s undercover nature and the ever present threat of police sirens surrounding the first two parts of the movie, street art was nothing but vandalism, appreciated only by the artists and those with a more rebellious nature. Then, how did it become a “hot commodity” so quickly? Shepherd, a fellow street artist made most famous by his poster of Barack Obama and his OBEY brand, thinks it’s all about the very nature of their graffiti. Often it is all about repetition--putting up their posters and graffiti everywhere and anywhere that they can in such prolific places that people will see it over and over again. He states that art “gains real power from perceived power”. The symbols that the artists use, often characters and styles unique to themselves, create an air of mystery and make people think that perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye. In truth, the artists just want to preserve, however temporarily, a little piece of themselves for everyone else to see. However, through the inane power of the human mind, people began to see it as something more. Soon, people began selling street art and art collectors who had Picasso and Monet on their walls began buying work from Banksy and Invader at auctions for thousands of dollars.
To me, art is expression with a meaning. Still, that is just my point of view on it. Art can be anything to anyone, but for it to be lasting it should have a relevance and a meaning that resounds for more than just the artist. This is why Banksy has become so famous, because people find meaning behind his work and a way for it to relate to themselves and the world they live in. There is an aspect of social commentary, a passion for the subjects he stencils, and a caring touch that makes his audience want to watch his work for hours. So then, how has Thierry managed the same immediate hype with his almost careless hand?
I believe in a few aspects, Thierry has got the right idea. It seems it is all about brainwashing the people into seeing that “this” particular piece is art but “that” is just a meaningless piece of trash; then, the next day it is the other way around. This documentary is surrounded in controversy on whether it is even a real documentary or another hoax done by Banksy himself, another work that he means for people to see and enjoy, to think about why these symbols trigger such emotions within us and why we have to judge on whether something is a “magnificent piece” or a “meaningless bit of inability”. Art is important to us as human beings because each piece we praise in our lifetime becomes a representation of what our culture was like at that point in time. I suppose if we cannot judge what is good and what is not, we will not be able to represent ourselves the way we want to for those in the future looking back at the most prominent generations in history.
- Lena Mier
