Best of Week: Exit Through The Gift Shop

In the past few weeks we have been watching the movie Exit Through The Gift Shop. The movie talked about the life of a french man who was obsessed with videotaping everything. Later we learned how he became introduced to the world of street art. The mysterious exposure led him to a deep fascination which in the end opened up his world to the notorious Banksy. After meeting Banksy he created his own image in street art and became Mr. Brainwash.

The whole film was an experience I found fruitful and eye opening. When I was young my mother always told me graffiti was Satan's doing and not something I should appreciate. But I just couldn't help but be fascinated by the wondrous style of the roof top vocabulary. Although I knew defacing property was bad I thought in some cases this was a real art form and could actually add the the boring walls created in our societies dull architecture. It wasn't until I heard of Banksy that I really saw the power of my inhibited interest could have. 

Graffiti has the power to shape the world. By conveying direct ideas indirectly individuals can bring political issues out into the open. Political commentary created through street art exploded as Bansky expressed his view on social injustices created by the governments of our world. As a dying rat transformed into a girl escaping to freedom, street art became the new medium for social change and expression of the peoples belief.

I truly see street art as an art form but it's not the art form for galleries or private homes its for walls of street corners and billboards. It is an art for the people not for the rich and famous. The power to shape our world changes with each generation. This art form in the change of the modern era.