Exit Through The Gift Shop

"Exit Through The Gift Shop" was a film created by French filmmaker Thierry Guetta. It started out as a documentary on street art and famous artist Banksy, but turned into the story of how Thierry transformed into a street artist himself. I think there are definite differences between Guetta's and Banksy's work.

Guetta started out the film by following Banksy around. He is a famous street artist, who is known for his highly inventive work. Guetta was fascinated by him and the whole world of street art. Banksy chose to remain anonymous and did not tag his name on any of his work. This shows that Banksy would prefer to remain a mystery since it gives his work an edge, and that he cares more about the art than personal recognition. Banksy also did not need to tag his name on his work because he has his own unique and recognizable style. His work only relates to Thierry's "Mister Brainwash" work because he gave Thierry the idea of gettimg into street art.

Thierry Guetta started out by making a film on street art but became inspired to try to enter the world for himself. He wanted to have a tag name, so he came up with "Mister Brainwash". He became huge practically overnight. His art was definitely different than Banksy's and other street artists because he was not an original artist. He just took other peoples' artwork and mashed it together, then called it his own. He also tagged his name on his work because he was more obsessed with being famous than artwork, which was the opposite of Banksy. Mister Brainwash became famous so quickly because he was picked up by a newspaper in Los Angeles. The paper announced his show and made it seems like everyone should go, so a lot of people showed up and paid a lot of money for his "art".This shows how obsessed Americans are with media. Americans take what the media says as gospel and they will do anything the media tells them to. Because Thierry's work started selling a lot, he became really focused on making money. This is just another way he was completely different from Banksy and other street artists.

From watching this film, I have learned a little bit about the world of street art. People like Banksy appreciate the art and make works for that reason. Thierry Guetta never really belonged in the street art world and from the way he used his tag name, "Mister Brainwash" it seemed like he did not really understand it. He was not creative or talented enough to create his own art, so he used other peoples' art and reformed it. He then pushed his tag name out to get recognition and exploited all of his work for money. Thierry Guetta can not really be considered the same or close to Banksy.