Exit Through the Gift Shop
Banksy
never knowingly foregoes an opportunity to make a pun. Thus we have, in the
pre-film credits, a play on the well-known Paramount Studios logo so that
the studio logo’s familiar mountain peak is circumscribed with bullet holes and
the word ‘Paranoid’ substituted for ‘Paramount’. Banksy
is a merry prankster who would appear to have successfully charmed many into
his pocket. His art likes to take a gentle poke at the establishment (cf. his depiction
of the apes in loco the members of
parliament who usually occupy Westminster Hall’s benches). The
film’s opening and closing song by Richie Hawley Tonight the Streets are Ours captures and cultivates this idea of slight rebellion
and "putting it to the man" camaraderie perfectly.
Banksy himself would have us
understand that this movie is not about him, but Thierry Guetta, a.k.a. Mr Brainwash
(his self-chosen street name). French, living in Los Angeles, Guetta/Brainwash
owns a second-hand a.k.a ‘vintage’ clothing store patronised by hipster
types. His interests include film-making and street artists.
Although we admire his charisma and eloquence, we're instinctively on our guard, there's something about
Guetta that isn't right. We're told how Thierry has sought out street art’s
biggest players and hence his connection with Banksy.
It’s slick and entertaining, but is it the truth?
The film’s events
are focussed on Guetta. Briefly, the film's main focus becomes that Guetta the entrepreneur
is impressed by the success of Banksy’s independent
art exhibitions in Los Angeles. The prospect of a big payday (we suspect) inspires
him to put on his own art show. At this point he’s not an artist. He gets
around this minor detail by employing others to make the art for him based on
his ideas. These ideas are Banksy-lite. They include
a robotic figure made of televisions and an modification to a well-known
picture of Elvis Presley strumming a guitar. I don’t
know how we are to make sense of the fact that his exhibition is apparently a roaring
success and nets him a substantial sum. This has something to do with the effectiveness
of his PR campaign I suppose.
No doubt you could argue that art is at its core about deception. This theme can be read into the work of, for example, photorealists or those who create trompe l’oeils. On the other hand, there is perhaps an intrinsic value that the act of creation bestows on the artist. This thought is echoed by one of the more credible street artists interviewed here. Unfortunately, the only values that Banksy and Brainwash, the latter in particular, show much of an interest in is the catalogue price of their punny paintings.