Banksy is a pretty interesting guy. I saw his Draw the Raised Bridge art when I first visited Hull last year. It was alright. Frankly, I’m not much of an art guy, but Banksy and his work crop up in my field of vision from time to time. Art pieces that shred themselves, famous looking statements sprayed onto areas that must have been truly terrifying to visit and an elusive public image that has left the majority of Earth wondering who he is. Well, I can categorically say that I am not Banksy, so that knocks at least one person off of the list. Exit Through the Gift Shop not only proves I’m not Banksy, but also details a feature documentary on his and Thierry Guetta’s relationship and work.
The relationship between Banksy and an accidental entrant into documentary filmmaking and street art, Thierry Guetta, is a nice mixture for the screen. If you’re expecting a fully-fledged documentary on Banksy, his work and a culmination of accomplishments like I was, you may be a tad disappointed. But don’t stray away from Exit Through the Gift Shop just yet, because it still has enough power and interest to craft a relatively interesting story. Placing the limelight on Guetta and his relationship with Banksy through primarily home video and talking head interviews with the two of them.
Whether or not this relationship is true is beyond my comprehension. Hoax or not, it’s a thoroughly interesting watch and narrated very nicely by Rhys Ifans. He adds a nice layer of realism to the feature, stringing scenes together that may not have obvious connections with one another at first. He holds the scenes together in a surprisingly important role, expanding what we’ve just seen on the screen and even divulging a little bit of knowledge that will be a welcome reassurance for those that know absolutely nothing of art. Like me.
Banksy’s art is interesting, and the brief, skittered flashes of his work and the impact of it is rather tremendous. The sudden rise and popularity of Street Art is documented rather well, but it’s certainly not the whole point of this Banksy directed piece. Like everything he does, he aims to create something more, a surface-level entrance into blurring the line of reality and fiction but a piece of art nonetheless. He captures scenes of his critics, collaborators and champions of his street art, and how the majority of them miss the point of his work entirely. It makes it rather difficult to criticise his feature-length documentary, it’d be very easy to tangle myself in his web of intricacies. At a surface level though, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an interesting enough experience, an easy to access musing on the rise of a new form of art.
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