Exit Through the Gift Shop: The Review

Ok, so by now all 3 of my die hard followers [who maybe the same person] may have read my summary of the movie 'Exit Through the Gift Shop', so now the easy part, the review/critique. Ok, who am I kidding there are no negative critiques so far about the movie and it is nothing short of brilliantly accurate without a spot of boredom [well I just like documentaries naturally so that last phrase may be biased].

As mentioned in the summary the movie surrounds the life of Thierry Guetta who becomes an overnight celebrity in the art world, of course Guetta's purpose in the film is to show just how ridiculously low the standards of art has fallen. To highlight the point even further, aspects of Guetta's life are selectively chosen specifically his clumsy behavior. Apart from tripping and falling over frequently, during the entire duration of the film he is described as being crazy, insane or dumb, yet very determined in performing what he had to do. As a result this gives Guetta a double edged reputation, some see him as an over hyped sensation made famous only by the fact that he was mindlessly endorsed by the rich and famous while others see him as an example of how far hard work, determination and hope can carry you. Unfortunately the movie focuses on the former and is not the first time Banksy places focus on this theme. In 2006 Banksy manages to swap out the cover art and CDs of Paris Hilton's album [titled Paris] and replace it with content questioning the acclaim to her fame [an example is the picture posted above]. The full story can be read here. Like Paris, the film shows how Guetta's lack of any defining talent or originality is simply substituted by heavy endorsements. This mockery of how the public perceives art peaks when Thierry gust applies a light film of spray paint over his prints to create "special editions". His work pretty much follows this theme, a slight alteration on popular icons to create "art".

Homage to the past

Before the days of Banksy and Fairey, 2 artists paved the way for what is now known as street art, Andy Warhol and Blek Le Rat. Warhol was more of a traditional mainstream artist who partook in the introduction of pop art, a system of emphasizing the icons of contemporary culture. Apart from a short snippet of Shepard dressed as Warhol, Banksy clearly shows this when he states that Guetta followed Warhol by the use of repeating cultural icons with the exception that Guetta repeated these themes until they made no sense.

After watching the movie for a third or 4th time I came to notice that the title of Guetta's first show "Life is Beautiful" is sort of a hommage to Blek's show which translated to English pretty much says "The Sky is blue and Life is Beautiful." This can be taken as Banksy's tribute to Blek [who many consider to be the source of inspiration for most of his works]

As short as this review is, the fact is, after going through this and other graffiti documentaries and books, I possibly could not in one blog post possibly attempt to summarize the graffiti world as a) its so diverse and complex and b) its still an active art movement. My conclusion, watch the movie, watch Bomb It as well and read some interviews with Banksy and Blek as well. toodles pplz

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