Banksy the elusive British graffiti artist has expanded into films. His first foray into this genre is a film which made it’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival. “Exit through the Gift Shop” is a story of how an eccentric LA-based French vintage clothes shop keeper turned documentary maker attempts to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on him.
Banksy has described the film as “the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed. “Trying to make a movie [that] truly conveys the raw thrill and expressive power of art is very difficult. So we haven’t bothered. Instead, this is simply an everyday tale of life, longing and mindless vandalism. Everything is true, especially the bit where we all lie.”
John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Festival said “Exit through the Gift Shop is one of those films that comes along once in a great while, a warped hybrid of reality and self-induced fiction while at the same time a totally entertaining experience,” “The story is so bizarre I began to question if it could even be real… but in the end I didn’t care. I feel bad I won’t be able to shake the film-maker’s hand and tell him how much I love this film. I think I will shake everyone’s hand that day and hope I hit on Banksy somewhere. I love his work in all forms.” (Courtesy of the Telegraph.)
Bristol is Britain’s 8th largest city and is just over 120 miles due West of London. The City Museum & Art Gallery which was established in 1823 is a classic regional museum that includes everything from old masters to contemporary art, sea dinosaurs, Egyptian artifacts, minerals and fossils, wildlife, Chinese pottery and a gypsy caravan.
Into this eclectic mix, Banksy, the elusive pseudo-anonymous British stencil graffiti artist was allowed in to create a summer exhibition of over 100 of his works juxtaposed into the permanent exhibition. Apparently, he was allowed into the museum under tight security, shielded even from the museum staff and trustees to create what is turning out to be one the biggest block-buster shows this summer in Britain.
The exhibition features a stonehenge made from portable toilets which greets visitors on arrival, a burnt out ice cream van now replaces the enquiries desk and the life size historic biplane suspended from the ceiling now provides refuge for a Guantanamo bay escapee. The sound of chicken nuggets singing fills the air, and a live leopard skin coat sleeps on a branch. Also among the museum’s collection of old masters hangs an oil painting of the British parliament entirely populated by monkeys.
It’s interesting that Banksy has managed to maintain his anonymity. It must be one of the world’s best kept secrets.The Daily Mail in July 2008 suggested that they had uncovered the identity of the artist as Robin Gunnigham, but then at the end of the article that their lead may have been a red herring. In a world when the media couldn’t keep a secret for more than 10 weeks that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan, it seems bizarre that the identity of this artist hasn’t been confirmed since his work became recognized back in the early 1990s.
His most expensive work to date has sold at auction in London for around $576,000, but many of his works are difficult to sell due to the often fixed nature of the medium of graffiti. He has been credited with placing subverted art in the MOMA, Met, Brooklyn Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York as well as the spraying on the Israeli West Bank barrier as well as numerous locations in the UK.
He seems to have a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at himself and not to take things too seriously; a rare trait in the contemporary art world today. It’s also good to know that some secrets can be kept.
