FILM 11
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EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - REVIEW 01
The disdain from Banksy, his entourage and contemporaries for the protagonist’s* flourish was palpable. I suppose I can understand the instinct to reject copy cats, and even sympathise with any view that this was somehow theft. However I would have to reject as hypocritical those who rebelled against the modus operandi of the mainstream art world only to then take an establishment position in the face of a new antithesis.
Banksy portrayed the worldwide movement of street artists as ideologically driven, democratising art by taking it out of the galleries and onto the streets. While this may have been originally the case their piety lapsed when it turned up on white walls surrounded by celebrities and complimentary drinks.
In my view two broad questions can define art’s value: how much people actually like it, and how much they will pay for it. I think those behind this film were trying to pose that they objected to events on the grounds of the first, when in fact they were angry that someone was playing a bloated industry better than them. Was it a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Or did he really capture the imagination of LA? Does it actually matter? Probably not.
*I can’t bring myself to type his name without cringing.
RATING - ?/5
BEN JENKINS
