Exit Through the Gift Shop
Dir: Banksy
2010
****
Banksy has become somewhat of a phenomenon when he's only doing what creatives have been doing for quite some time. It's unfortunate that the media have labeled him as some sort of trickster which is to completely misunderstand what he is doing, he's not a trickster, his work isn't a practical joke, he is playful and inventive in his art work and keeps his identity a secret because what he does is illegal and he doesn't want to be arrested. Sneaking his work into galleries was a logical progression of street art but he's not exactly the next Jeremy Beadle, or Chris Morris for that matter, although his work is pure satire. This documentary gets to the route of some of the misgivings the media have spun, although this is not really directed at Banksy himself but through a completely different artist. Thierry Guetta is one of many Frankenstein street artists out there and he's certainly not alone. Galleries are full of pretenders these days, many of them are getting recognition (and rather rich) as are the galleries that have them. Guetta presented the perfect opportunity in showing this, thanks to his tapes and his documented spiral into an egotistical funfair. Look at how he originally made money, buying old clothes cheap and then selling them for thousands of dollars by labeling them 'Vintage'. There is something very Warhol about him, he would see that as a complement, when if fact Warhol did something that was new and innovative but could only be done once. Guetta is a charlatan, a pretender and an egomaniac, a lovable one but still a fraud. Banksy can't exactly choose who influences but I like the way he sets the record straight, not just for himself either. I remember a couple of years ago, I was outside Waterloo station in London and a group of WI ladies came up to me and asked me where the nearest Banksy was, I was a little taken aback and a little upset, as I'm a fan of his work. I got over it fairly quickly, it doesn't bother me at all that he makes lots of money and has work in galleries, at least he is the real deal. People keep missing the point by asking the same stupid and subjective question that is; "Is it art?". "Does it matter?". There is an art to every craft, I see his work as satirical social satire, a very tricky thing to get right, and I would argue that yes, there is an art to it. Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fascinating case-study of what populist art in the early 21st Century is, very insightful and certainly a film I'd like to watch in another 20 or 30 years time.