When I was in sixth grade, 1995 or so, I started to really get into reading books. If there was a book on World War 2 or Michael Crichton I was going to get my hands on it no matter what. The way I usually got the books was through mail order. My family would get catalogs that sold books and I would fill out the ordering form, I would exchange some sort of work for my parents to cut a check, some postage and then wait. Usually the typical six to twelve weeks. I had to wait. Immediacy was a luxury and most times I would forget that there were books coming and then one day a package would be awaiting me and new books would be ready to be read. For some reason, the notion of waiting and time was on my mind while watching the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010).
Exit Through the Gift Shop centers on the story of Thierry Guetta, an obsessed videographer/cum-filmmaker who's full on head dive into street art and vandalism leads him to the top of respectability among the best street artists of the world. Thierry begins his journey as a man who's obsession with filming everything in his life. His obsession to never miss a moment of his life leads him to filming Space Invader, a street artist known for placing mosaics of the video game icons of the aliens from Space Invaders throughout cities. From Space Invader he films other artists and begins to develop an idea for making a documentary film about street artists but one artist alludes him, that is the infamous Banksy.
Banksy's reputation for subversion and social commentary through stenciling and placing doctored paintings in museums led him to becoming a prolific street artist in Britain. As Banksy began to stretch his horizons to other countries, Thierry's desire to film the street artist leads him to dead ends until a fortuitous encounter which propels Thierry into Banksy's world. Thierry is absorbed into the subversion of Banksy's art but also into Banksy's private world. Banksy sees Thierry as a filmmaker who may very well be able to create an accurate account of street art and street artists. Thierry's filming stretches over nine years, with hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage and his final product is nothing more than snippets of those years. The amount of time and footage that Thierry was able to have with making a film was futile and in Banksy's eyes a piece of crap.
The world in which Thierry captured on film became the world in which he would embody. Thierry becomes a street artist and is caught up in the idea of taking up an artist name for himself and becoming as big as Banksy. He takes over an abandoned television studio to develop an arts show that would showcase his prolific work, even though his time as a street artist is limited. In almost a coup to the system of street artistry, Thierry becomes a sensation by being sensational. When looking at Thierry's art work one can see that he took what he liked best from the artists that he followed for many years and incorporates those ideas as his own. The art show becomes nothing more than a temple to worship and give praise to Thierry, but then to, in turn, sell himself and his work without even a hesitation.
The immediacy in which Thierry becomes famous at the end of the film is coupled with the amount of time Thierry spent filming street artists. Banksy looks at Thierry as someone who has cheated the system of street artistry and has not put in the time. But then there is the seven or so years of just filming and watching artists. I can not help but think that as we are capable of ingesting media and artistry through various forms of new media, are we creating the immediacy of artistry in various mediums?Does the time it takes to perfect a craft now become compromised due to the access in which we have online or is the "how to guide" mentality creating an immediacy that is shallow and hallow? These questions come from the fact that Thierry employs graphic artists to print images he finds and then doctor those images and then selling them as art. It is as if Thierry has created a factory mentality to street art but is ignorant of the excess.
There was a time when an artist would go under the tutelage of a senior/professional artist and learn tricks and trades that would help the fledgling artist develop his craft. Time was expected and time seemed to teach something that could only be learned through itself. Exit Through the Gift Shop can be seen as an exposé of street art or the exposing of Thierry Guetta and his art. If anything the film is a swan song to street art. Sure young people will go into the streets and literally put their mark on the world. But now that cultural capital and commercialization have infiltrated the ranks and the common man being able to mass produce said art and make a profit, street art's viability seems to wain. But then again all art movements come and pass.
