World-famous street artist Banksy recently released a film called “Exit Through The Gift Shop” (trailer here), billed as the world’s “First Street Art Disaster Movie.” A commentary on the state of street art, a burgeoning underground movement, it is for many, the first look into a culture of art that takes place on the streets that provide context for the pieces themselves. Some of the best street art in the world changes the everyday outside and urban landscape into a thing of beauty, or a message to force those to look at their surroundings in another way.
The movie is a shot at the so-called ‘hype machine’, that overvalues the work of street artists, out of context, turning serious social and political commentary into a money-making enterprise. This phenomenon, the film seems to state, is sucking the soul out of the street art world.

“Exit Through The Gift Shop” focuses on the relationship primarily between three artists, Banksy, Shepard Fairey (best known for the Obama HOPE poster and his OBEY series), and the outsider, Thierry Gutta aka Mr. Brainwash.

I feel like the movie was a bit mean-spirited toward MBW, a sort of cliquish view of street art. Everything he did, Banksy and Fairey do as well, but they consider his work un-organic and derivative. Throughout the movie we see Mr. Brainwash following his heroes around, learning from them and, ultimately, becoming them.

The attacks on Thierry seem unfair when we are comparing to Shepard Fairey of all people. How is he truly different? While MBW’s works are sometimes derivative and devoid of context and meaning, that doesn’t mean at all that the entirety of his work is bad. It would be like saying Banksy’s rats or Fairey’s OBEY make their other works inconsequential.

At one point, Banksy mocks the mishmash of what Thierry’s movie was. It reflects the unclear nature of Banksy’s message, who is himself an enigma – someone whose art is at times overtly political and sometimes whimsical.

We have to ask the question of how much motivation is a part of this street art world. Must your motives be pure to participate? If so, while Banksy and Fairey have ‘outed’ the motivation of MBW, why do they consider themselves above that? And they played a role that MBW clearly wanted to emulate – if he was emulating the best he could, maybe he knows more about Fairey and Banksy than we do.

(Update: It’s now released so the long and short of it is that it is AWFUL.)