Banksy | First Impressions

Video:

Creator’s Statement:

‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is Banksy’s 2010 entry into documentary filmmaking, and yet another instance of him painting over someone else’s business because the work just had to be seen.[1] The feature is made from many hours of golden footage of the meteoric rise (and arguably the subsequent fall) of the street art movement. A movement wherein artists made colour from a “legal grey” as Banksy himself considers their area of operation. Banksy has us watch as these artists are confronted by police, then watch how confused they are when they are eventually confronted by auctioneers. And as street artists begin to play the role of police in their own art form as soon as those auctioneers are involved.

Banksy has always mixed social criticism with bone dry humour. As he describes in his first book, “graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”[2] Exit Through the Gift Shop is his moving picture, enormously entertaining, with a clear attempt to this time critique the commodification of street art and the effect it has had on what art gets appreciated, and how.

This video essay seeks to establish important, somewhat complex context and explore why Banksy may have taken his own art in this direction, and how he chose to critique commodification. But this process is interrupted with the acknowledgement of popular speculation that the film was an elaborate hoax. Rarely does a film elicit this specific reaction, so Exit Through the Gift Shop is worth studying – what ought to be believed? And more easily answerable, how does this ambiguity operate in relation to the critique presented by the film?

This essay attempts to swiftly illustrate in clear audio-visual terms the lessons that can be taken from the documentary; that the ambiguous situation of the documentary, pointed in its critique, draws out a reconfiguration of art criticism – the means by which one assesses truth is not so different from that which assesses value. The unknowing regarding the film’s authenticity has a metatextual purpose. The viewer is placed in a very active position if the joke could well be on them. Only, film has been a game of deception between filmmaker and audience for a long time indeed. Despite its relative uniqueness. Banksy’s film is illuminated (becoming perhaps an essay film) in its (Schrödinger’s) placing in a historic catalogue of docufiction. These types of films “help to expand our understanding of what constitutes a documentary […] by forming a troubled relationship with the real.”[3] For me, they paradoxically draw attention to that which they could be defined as obfuscating – the boundaries of reality.

Additionally, the film is illuminated in its ambiguous situation in that it can inspire more than one distinct and detailed reading simultaneously. And to want to narrow the film to only produce one grounded reading of the facts would be like wanting to make the mystery box nothing more than the box – charmless and shallower.

A consequence of this illustration is being confronted with the awareness (reiterated by Orson Welles) that the map is not the territory and images are treacherous things.[4] That film is not reality and that really all films, all artworks, deceive on some level as constructions. A documentary filmmaker does not record, they interpret.[5] Perhaps a simple truth, but always a freeing, thought-provoking and creatively inspirational reminder.

Tom Farrell

‘The Reality of Exit Through the Gift Shop’ Complete Reference List

24 Realities per Second, dir. Eva Testor, Nina Kusturica (Deckert, 2005)
Apocalypse Now, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (United Artists, 1979)
Banksy, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall (Weapons of Mass Distraction, 2001)
Banksy, Wall and Piece (Vintage, 2005)
banksyfilm, ‘Shredding the Girl and Balloon – The Director’s half cut’, YouTube, 17 Oct 2018, <https://youtu.be/vxkwRNIZgdY> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Beardsley, Monroe, ‘Critical Evaluation: Reasons and Judgements’ in Aesthetics: problems in the philosophy of criticism (Hackett, 1981)
Blacksmith Scene, dir. William Kennedy Dickson (Edison Manufacturing Company, 1893)
The Blair Witch Project, Adam Wingard, Ben Rock, Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, Joe Berlinger (Summit Entertainment, 1999)
Catsoulis, Jeanette, ‘On the Street, at the Corner of Art and Trash’, The New York Times, 16 April 2010, <https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/movies/16exit.html> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Children of Hiroshima, dir. Kaneto Shindo (1952)
Citizen Kane, dir. Orson Welles (RKO Radio Pictures, 1941)
City of God, dir. Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund (Globo Filmes, Miramax Films, 2002)
Cleo from 5 to 7, dir. Agnès Varda (Athos Films, Ciné-Tamaris, 1962)
Close-Up, dir. Abbas Kiarostami (Celluloid Dreams, 1990)
The Creators, ‘Krokite’, Kronkite (Bad Magic, 2000)
Docufictions: Essays on the Intersection of Documentary and Fictional Filmmaking, ed. by Gary D. Rhodes & John Parris Springer (McFarland, 2006)
Donato, Raffaele, ‘Docufictions: An Interview with Martin Scorsese on Documentary Film’ in Film History, Vol. 19, No. 2, Film and Copyright (Indiana University Press, 2007)
Ebert, Roger, ‘Is it a hoax if it’s also art?’, com, 28 April 2010, <https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/exit-through-the-gift-shop-2010> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Edelstein, David, ‘A Rich Satire About Street Art, Or Is It A Hoax?’, NPR, 16 April 2010, < https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126037446> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Elvis, dir. Steve Binder (NBC, 3 December 1968)
Exit Through the Gift Shop, by Banksy (Revolver Entertainment, 2010)
ExtraCrispyNYC, ‘Shepard Fairey – What’s the deal with Thierry?’, YouTube, 21 April 2010, <https://youtu.be/4e-F4MsBx_I> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Fallen Angels, dir. Wong Kar-wai (Kino International, 1995)
Felch, Jason, ‘Getting at the truth of ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’’, Los Angeles Times, 22 February 2011, <https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-feb-22-la-et-oscar-exit-20110222-story.html> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
F for Fake, dir. Orson Welles (Planfilm, Speciality Films, 1973)
‘The Filmmakers’, com, Archived from the original on 27 September 2016, < https://web.archive.org/web/20160927140024/http://www.blairwitch.com/project/filmmakers.html> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Fischer, Russ, ‘The Secret Origin Of ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop:’ Extortion, A Lawsuit And A Dilettante?’, com, 7 September 2011, <https://www.slashfilm.com/517441/secret-origin-exit-gift-shop-documentary-extortion/> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Forrest Gump, dir. Robert Zemeckis (Paramount Pictures, 1994)
‘Frequently asked questions’, co.uk, Archived from the original on 3 January 2012, <https://web.archive.org/web/20120103163406/http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/qaa.html> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Harakiri, dir. Akira Kurosawa (Shochiku, 1962)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, dir. Chantal Akerman (Olympic Films, 1975)
Landesman, Ohad, ‘Aesthetics of Ambiguity in Docufictions’ in Contemporary Documentary, ed. Daniel Marcus & Selmin Kara (Routledge, 2015)
La Terra Trema, dir. Luchino Visconti (Compagnia Edizioni, Distribuzione, Internazionali Artistiche, 1948)
Life Remote Control, Mr. Brainwash (2011)
The Lighthouse, dir. Robert Eggers (A24, VVS Films, 2019)
Magritte, René, The Treachery of Images (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1929)
Massive Attack, ‘Atlas Air’, Heligoland (Virgin Records, 2010)
Massive Attack, ‘Psyche’, Heligoland (Virgin Records, 2010)
Moana, dir. Frances H. Flaherty, Robert J. Flaherty, Monica Flaherty Frassetto (Paramount Pictures, 1926)
North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1959)
On the Bowery, dir. Lionel Rogosin (Film Representations Inc., 1956)
ppmc, ‘Sotheby’s Auction of Banksy’s Devolved Parliament. £8.5 million plus premium (9.8 mil all in!)’, YouTube, 3 October 2019, <https://youtu.be/sWFHwAAU1YA> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Pulp Fiction, dir. Quentin Tarantino (Miramax Films, 1994)
Randy Writes a Novel, dir. Anthony Warrington (2018)
The Red Shoes, dir. Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell (General Film Distributors, 1948)
Ryzik, Melena, ‘Riddle? Yes. Enigma? Sure. Documentary?’, The New York Times, 13 April 2010, <https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/movies/14banksy.html> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Sardonicast, ‘61: F for Fake’, 1 June 2020 <https://sardonicast.fireside.fm/61> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Shelton, Jacob, ‘Is ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’ An Actual Profile Of Mr. Brainwash, Or Is It A Practical Joke?’, com, 14 January 2020, <https://www.ranker.com/list/exit-through-gift-shop-documentary-or-prank/jacob-shelton> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Sidelnikova, Yevheniia, ‘“Exit through the gift shop”: the endless joke of Banksy the Trickster’, com, 14 June 2020, <https://arthive.com/publications/4429~Exit_through_the_gift_shop_the_endless_joke_of_banksy_the_trickster> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Sky News, ‘Mr Brainwash ‘honouring’ top artists by reproducing their work’, YouTube, 3 October 2021, <https://youtu.be/TEtM8j1VZcE> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Sontag, Susan, Against Interpretation (Penguin, 1966)
Sotheby’s, ‘Bidding Battle Boosts Banksy to Four Times its Estimate’, YouTube, 8 October 2020, <https://youtu.be/F_kKHQ8CD1o> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, dir. F. W. Murnau (Paramount Pictures, 1931)
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Waking Life, dir. Richard Linklater (Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2001)
Walker, Alissa, ‘Here’s Why the Banksy Movie Is a Banksy Prank?’, Fast Company, 15 April 2010, < https://www.fastcompany.com/1616365/heres-why-banksy-movie-banksy-prank> [Accessed 5 February 2023]
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[1] Exit Through the Gift Shop, dir. by Banksy (Revolver Entertainment, 2010)

[2] Banksy, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall (2001), p. 5

[3] Ohad Landesman, ‘Aesthetics of Ambiguity in Docufictions’ in Contemporary Documentary, ed. Daniel Marcus & Selmin Kara (2015), pp. 13

[4] René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1929)

[5] Raffaele Donato, ‘Docufictions: An Interview with Martin Scorsese on Documentary Film’ in Film History, Vol. 19, No. 2, Film and Copyright (Indiana University Press, 2007), pp. 199-207

The video may also be seen on vimeo here:

Exit Through the Gift Shop is Banksy’s 2010 entry into documentary filmmaking, and yet another instance of him painting over someone else’s business because the work just had to be seen.

The feature is made from many hours of golden footage of the meteoric rise of the street art movement that made colour from a “legal grey”. Watch as artists are confronted by police, then see how confused they are when they’re eventually confronted by auctioneers.

Banksy isn’t at the centre of this story, though he certainly might have been at one point. Instead, our protagonist (and lesson in the unlimited power of confidence) is Thierry Guetta, who fails upwards and films in all directions. His obsession of finding Banksy, in capturing the legacy of the artistic underworld, is infectious and the mark of a good documentarian. But there are two caveats:

· He’s not a good documentarian.

· He can’t help himself but be a part of that aforementioned legacy. And he’s not a good street artist either.

At least Banksy doesn’t seem shy to think so. So what Thierry really is is the perfect documentary subject. Thierry and Banksy (and to some extent the rest of the street art world), despite having been friends, exist at odds. Thierry cannot create, and when he comes close, like with the making of the film Life Remote Control, he expects the viewer to pick up the pieces for him.

To Thierry, everything is so exciting that nothing can be cut; and what is derivative to one viewer is a practice of worship to him. Or perhaps you’re someone that believes that Thierry is a good artist. For everyone that does, all the praise that Banksy remembers receiving is valued a little less to him. If street art truly is a movement, then Thierry is a new recruit that’s letting the side down, and this film is a wake-up call.

Formally, the film is made a breeze to digest, never struggling for material or overcomplicating (or underselling) its subject. It is incidentally hilarious, being incredibly short on sane subjects and situations, and knowing precisely how long to dwell before moving on to the next. The edit truly does justice to the scale of street art – it is everywhere, and it is humble, despite constant attempts at appropriation by the elite (this film being one of Banksy’s early instances of fighting back).

Of course, given the context, and given how much the film has to say about art, it’s no wonder that so many people suspect that the central Thierry is an invention; possibly a nightmare Banksy had one too many times now put to film. Banksy is a figure so inscrutable that we cannot tell when he is lying.

But that doesn’t matter. If it’s real, it’s a hyperactive musing on the value of this new art and how it can be done right and wrong. If it’s fake, it’s one of the most meaningfully elaborate pranks ever to adopt the medium.

Tom Farrell