Vandalism or Art?

Vandalism or Art?

The film Exit through the Gift Shop, is about a French man named Thierry Guetta, who moved to Los Angeles, and sold collectable clothing, at his own gift shop. He then realized that there was plenty of interesting graffiti artists, all around the city that he lived in. Thierry had a passion for capturing the moment of everyday life, and brought a video camera with stacks of tapes, so he could record everything. Thierry had a cousin, most commonly known as the Space Invader -a street artist- who introduced him to many other street artist, which led him to begin his own extraordinary video. All the footage that was captured in this documentary was amazing, and has an emphasized view on how regular artist, become famous artist through street art, and or other forms of art that could be considered vandalism.

Artist in this documentary are showing their real life. It is illegal to “vandalize” although most artist such as Shepherd, Borf, Space Invader, and more believe that it is art for everyone to see on a daily basis. This conflict with the law, was a huge problem for most street artist, because you have to be very cautious of your surroundings. There were certain things that Thierry could not capture because his light from his camera would give away the location of the artist, and potentially give away the artists area to work. Which made it hard for Thierry to capture the true meaning of the life of a street artist. It is interesting to think about how difficult it is to become a famous artist, or a known artist. To start out small in a little corner, running from the police, to hosting your own conventions of art in an abandoned building or museum.

Which leads me to explain Banksy’s life. Banksy, a well-known graffiti/ street artist, has a closed, shut out life. He is also a very mysterious man, not only for his work, but also his own life.  He forbids anyone to see his face, or hear his voice. In the documentary, the producers edited his voice, so no one will recognize him. Banksy always wears a sweater, with a hood over his face. The only area that you can see in every piece of footage, is his hands. He told Thierry, “The only way you can film me, is from behind, where you can only see my hands” says Thierry. Making it nearly impossible for anyone to verify who this man is. The only thing he leaves behind is his name on his art, but how can you identify anyone’s name if it is not a legal name?

Thierry captured Banksy’s life to the best of his ability, especially because Banksy only allowed his hands to be seen. Since Thierry only had a hand held video camera, and not a professional camera with a tripod or a stand. The quality of the video was not the best, also since his camera was an older version, the clarity of the video wasn’t as amusing, or appealing to watch. Although since it was a hand held camera, there were plenty of interesting angles and real life action during this film. Viewing a close up of how Banksy created his works of art was astonishing! It was a real experience to see what the artist have to go through to “publish” their art, and to show how they truly feel about other issues in society.

Personally this film had its ups and downs, there was not a true formal set up of a real professional movie, but it was fascinating. It was interesting to see the process, and errors that have occurred throughout the film, which made the documentary different than others.  If I had to rate this film I would give it an 8/10 for the main idea of the story, and a 6/10 for the cinematic aspect of the film. Overall I would give it a 7/10, or 3.5 out of five stars. Well done expressing the concept of the movie, but if you are not interested in art the film would be very dull, and uneventful. Which brings me back to my main question. Do you view graffiti as vandalism or art?


Works of art from characters in this film
                                                    
                                                             Banksy's Work

 

 

 

Space Invaders work: