“Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a documentary initially created by Thierry Guetta, a French videographer addicted to taping every aspect of his life. The audience gets a look at his continuous filming in the beginning of the documentary, where Guetta shows us his countless amounts of videos he has taken throughout his live. Guetta tells us that he first began recording when his mother died; he realized how short life can be and did not want to miss one second of it. We see footage of his life including his wife and children, and other random events from Guetta’s life that he captured on film. We learn that Guetta is intrigued by the concept of street art, as well as learning about the anonymous faces hidden behind art found all over major cities. Guetta makes it his mission to film a documentary about street artists and how they are able to covertly display their art for the public to view free of cost.
In the documentary we are introduced to Guetta’s cousin, “Invader,” a street artist whose mission is to post “Space Invader” images all over different cities throughout the world. Invader discusses the way he creates the street art, as well as the inspiration behind his work. Invader then introduces Guetta to the street artist Shepard Fairrey. Guetta follows Shepard Fairey around and happily films his work. While interacting with multiple street artists, Guetta begins to hear more and more about the street artist Banksy. Eventually, the two are given the opportunity to meet. Guetta was intrigued by Banksy’s street art style and began to follow him around with a camera. Banksy was interested in doing risky street art projects, such as placing a Guantanamo Bay prisoner doll in the Magic Kingdom at Disneyland. Banksy was a worldwide phenomenon; his art could be found all over Europe and North America. Although a documentary primarily about Banksy would seem practical because people all over the world were curious about his identity and how he created his street art, Banksy decided to turn Guetta’s cameras onto himself and create a documentary about the obsessive videographer.
Inspired by Banksy as well as the other street artists that he came into contact with, Guetta decided to give street art a try. Guetta had an image of himself holding a video camera created posted all over the city of Los Angeles. The image created a buzz throughout the city, and soon Guetta created an alter ego of a street artist named Mr. Brainwash. Mr. Brainwash became an overnight sensation in Los Angeles. However, Guetta did not create all of the artwork himself. In the documentary we meet several artists that Guetta outsourced to design artwork for Mr. Brainwash. He gave them orders, including what pictures and designs to incorporate into the artwork he was going to claim was his own. Guetta rented out an old television production studio in order to display “his” artwork. Guetta had Banksy as well as other street artists promote the opening of Mr. Brainwash’s gallery. An advertisement placed in LA Weekly caused hundreds of people to line up outside of Mr. Brainwash’s gallery opening. The gallery was extremely successful; Mr. Brainwash sold millions of dollars worth of artwork, says Banksy.
The over arching meaning and point of “Exit Through the Gift Shop” was to show the other side of the street art movement. Normally, the public can only view the artwork that is created by anonymous street artists. This documentary gave the public a means of seeing how street art is created and how a street artist can be literally created overnight.
The anonymity of Banksy, as well as of other street artists demonstrates the idea that their artwork is more about the content of their work, rather than themselves. Many artists maintain an anonymous image so that their appearance, educational background, values, opinions, wealth, and other characteristics are not the main reason for interest in their artwork. Rather, the viewers are solely interested in the work itself. Anonymous artists are less interested in self-promotion; rather they are interested in portraying a creative concept through their specific type of art. The artist could be anybody; this creates a mystery for the viewer, allowing them to come up with their own idea as to who created a specific piece of artwork.
The anonymity of Banksy and other street artists can also be explained through Marshall McLuhan’s idea of “the medium is the message.” McLuhan’s idea is that the content of any medium is always another medium. For street art, the medium is the street, or any public surface that the art is designed on. There are many social implications of using the street as a medium for a message. For instance, because an artist chooses to create street art, we can assume that he or she wishes to remain anonymous. In addition, many street artists want everyone and anyone to be able to see their artwork; rather than displaying it in an art gallery that will only be visited by select people. Street art strives to make a statement that will reach a broad audience. Using the street as a medium is the easiest way for street artists to have their message reach a large amount of people.
I think that Banksy’s anonymity contributed to his success and large amount of publicity. If the public were aware of Banksy’s identity, there would be less talk about his artwork and the meaning of it. If a well-known artist decided to create street art, there would be more discussion about the specific artist and his or her motives, rather than the artistic content of their message. However, an anonymous identity makes the audience more curious about the content of the artwork, as well as the statement and meaning behind it. Banksy’s anonymity strengthens the content and significance of his artwork, rather than his personal image.
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