Art Event: Exit Through the Gift Shop

The film “Exit through the Gift Shop” ended up being really surprising to me. In the beginning of the movie, I think most viewers got an idea of what the film would entail. We were introduced to a French filmmaker. He seemed a bit eccentric, but I know I personally took it as dedication and love for what he was doing. When he started filming different street artists he again just seemed like he was following a passion and being an admirer. He let us see amazing street artists at work, something we are usually not lucky enough to see. I have always wondered exactly how these artists pull off their artwork. It showed many different types of street art, including graffiti art, putting up mosaic tiles like Space Invader, gluing large pieces of paper to the wall, and even putting many layers of paint on the walls like the artist Swoop did.

            During this part of the movie, I felt I had a basic understand for where it was going. Terry had finally come in contact with the famous Banksy and seemed like he was going to finally be able to make his documentary. However, we start to see that Terry had never organized his tapes, and when we were given a look at what he came up with for a film, it was a bit surprising. I completely agreed with what Banksy said about the film Terry made. It seemed at though it was just a bunch of action trailers all pasted together for 90 minutes. We only got to see a few minutes of what Terry created but I know I personally would not be able to sit through 90 minutes of that.

            At this point, I really start to understand what a lot of film was getting at. Banksy took the film from Terry with the intent of re creating the documentary. In the meantime, Banksy told Terry to go created some artwork of his own. Terry took this advice to a whole new level and ended up creating a studio and even hiring other artists. When Terry was showing the work that he did I couldn’t help but notice how alike his work was to other artist’s. Seeing this really made me wonder if Mr. Brainwash could even be considered an artist. In actuality, he was taking other works he has seen, and not only is he changing them, but he is usually just telling his hired artists what to change about them. In his spray-paint tomato soup can, I was even more shocked to see what he did. Not only did he take the idea from the artist Andy Warhol, but also that artist created it from someone else’s artwork that was put on the can. So in the end, Mr. Brainwash took and changed an artist’s artwork that had already been taken and changed. I believe that overall, the movie left viewers with one question: Is Mr. Brainwash an artistic genius? Or are the people who spent so much money on his artwork just gullible?