Analysis of Banksys Exit Through the Gift Shop Essay

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) Banksy

Introduction to the Documentary

Banksy, in his documentary 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' seeks to highlight street art and tell people the difficulties inherent in being a street artist and making a living out of it. He wanted people to know that being a street artist means maintaining a crew that was combat ready and gaining their trust through different means to maintain anonymity. The documentary looks at the emergence of street artists in Los Angeles. The friendship between Banksy and Thierry Guetta, his fan, is apparent in the documentary. Guetta is fascinated by the street art in Los Angeles and followed the artists filming them to make a documentary of his own. Guetta eventually meets Banksy and films his stunts of 'Guantanamo' in Disneyland precincts. The videos that he shot for years were not enjoyable, prompting Banksy to describe Guetta as 'somebody with mental problems who happened to have a camera.' Therefore, he takes control of the camera convincing Guetta to be the star of his own documentary. Guetta, with no camera, in no time started producing a style of pop art similar to Banksy's under the name 'Mr. Brainwash.' 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' captures Guetta's journey in turning Mr. Brainwash into an overnight sensation. We see in the documentary that Banksy's work is laughed at, with no appreciation for its art or creativity. Banksy's art is inspired forgery, and at the same time devalues and debunks the authoritative symbols (Bradshaw, 2010).

The Filmmaker's View

In his documentary, Banksy tells the story of David Guetta, a French videographer, who starts filming Banksy and his street art, where, eventually, he himself ends up as a street artist. He becomes an aspiring street artist in Los Angeles and opens up his art show in 2008, 'Life is Beautiful.' Banksy, in his documentary exposes how our search for authenticity conflicts with our standards for evaluation of art in the modern culture (DuBois, n.d.).

Banksy, who has been a street artist since 1992, contributes to talks about authenticity and art through his documentary. In 'Exit Through The Gift Shop,' Banksy focuses on Thierry Guetta whose intention was to make a documentary on street art, but the limelight turns on himself instead. He starts producing art that is similar to Banksy's and through the documentary, Banksy reveals authenticity of his art. The movie opens with several masked artists creating their pieces and the audience can feel their emotions and attitudes as the artists express them in an openly rebellious way. Then the question of authenticity of that art and it's relation to the motivation of the artist is explored. Banksy, through the documentary, delivers the message that street art is authentic. He shows how Guetta starts the work of filming with his cousin, following it with the work of Shepard Fairey and Borf. Highlighting the works of these artists, Banksy shows his appreciation for their work and how they have spent years in perfecting it and establishing their personal styles (DuBois, n.d.).

According to Banksy, the self-expression on the artist's part is what makes the art more authentic. Although he stands in for authenticity, he also questions the art created by Guetta. The audience is shown how Guetta starts recreating the works of the artists he had followed over the years. It is not clear whether he does that for self-expression or for fame, but Banksy successfully conveys the message that not all street art is authentic. Emotions are another element highlighted by Banksy that is motivational for the street artist. Guetta's interview of Borf is shown in the documentary in which he tells about an art that he created in the memory of his now deceased best friend, so emotions are an important part of the artist's personality. Since emotions indicate identity of a person, they also have authenticity, but Banksy holds a different point-of-view. Pleasure in work does not mean that the artist's work is authentic. He questions the art of Guetta who pastes stickers and printouts of himself holding a camera and states that authenticity needs that it be more original. Banksy in the documentary is trying to convey that apart from emotions and pleasure, the history and prior works of the artists are also important components to be considered when judging authenticity. Guetta was a videographer and suddenly starts creating street art that gives him fame. He cites his lack of experience as an artist, which according to him is important when judging the authenticity of the work (DuBois, n.d.).

Banksy ultimately feels that the street artists are cheated by such depiction, which gets worse when Guetta gets to open his show in LA. He makes a million dollars through art that he did without any experience and without working hard like the other artists. According to Banksy, the people praising the work of Guetta just tell how all of us are eager in believing in the authenticity of the work. Banksy claims that Mr. Brainwash is just a hoax who produced art for fame and money (DuBois, n.d.).

The structure

The opening 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' opens with exhibitions and works of renowned street artists and touches the contemporary trends of high and popular art culture. The film starts with Thierry Guetta who is working in a clothing shop but always carries a camera around him everywhere. On his holiday in France, Thierry discovers that his cousin 'Invader' is an international street artist and starts documenting his works as well as his friends'. Invader then visits Thierry in Los Angeles and meets Shepard Fairey after which Thiery continues to film Shepard's activities along with the works of other artists like Buffmoster, Borf, Azil, Swoon, Dotmasters, Ron English, Cyclops, Sweet Toof, Neck Face, Seizer and Poster Boy. Guetta does not disclose to Fairey about his plans about the filming he is doing, which he will not be making into any film (Lowe, 2010).

The Story

Guetta, however, continues hearing about Banksy but is not able to contact him. The story starts developing when Banksy one day visits New York, but his accomplice is not allowed to enter America so he calls Fairey for a guide who contacts Guetta. Guetta becomes his guide and also starts filming Banksy; Banksy sees this as an opportunity to record street art. After some days, Banksy is preparing for the Guantanamo doll in Disneyland, but Guetta is caught filming.

After the interrogation, Guetta destroys the photos in his camera but manages to hide the tape in his sock. After 'Barely Legal' becomes an overnight success, Banksy asks Guetta to create a documentary out of his footage, which after editing becomes something that is so distorted that Banksy questions the filmmaking ability of Guetta. However, he considers the street art videos to be valuable and decides to shoot his own documentary, while convincing Guetta to make his own art show (Lowe, 2010).

The End

The documentary concludes with Guetta starting to work as 'Mr. Brainwash' and after six months, produces 'Life is Beautiful' which is an overnight success and he earns almost a million dollars from it. Guetta, while being busy in the limelight, does not notice that a lot of paintings were missing, and Banksy calls some professionals to set up the rest of the work. The success of the show leaves Banksy and Fairey very confused as Guetta's pieces were being sold for millions around the world (Lowe, 2010).

The Theme

The main theme is the conflict in the documentary, the overnight success of Mr. Brainwash that leaves even Banksy and Fairey confused. These people have worked hard to make their names among the street artists whereas, it is Guetta who gets all the success and money. Furthermore another conflict that can be seen is the time Banksy decides to take the camera from Guetta and make a documentary himself while keeping Guetta busy. He suggests that he starts his own art work, which ultimately leads to the overnight success for Guetta.

The Elements

The documentary has a lot of technical flaws but includes a lot of history of the street art in Los Angeles. It includes footages of famous street artists that Thierry managed to capture and the documentary starts with a montage of these artists whose work is being appreciated by Banksy through that montage (Lowe, 2010).

Camera Style, Editing Style, Audio Design

Banksy, in one of the interviews, stated that editing was one of the most difficult processes of the film. He spent more than a year watching the footages made by Guetta and since the documentary was made by a small team, the type of footage on the tape kept causing difficulties for the editors. Banksy also stated that the editors went through almost ten thousand hours of footage made by Guetta and could manage only a few seconds of useful from it (Leopold, 2010).

Banksy appears in the documentary with his face hidden and a disguised voice during some interviews.…