No Comments Written by Omni Demarco on June 18, 2010 – 3:30 pm

Style Wars, wars of walls, stencil v’s graf’, gallery v’s street…For near on a decade now the realm of street-art has been gearing up into a complex and diverse world. We’ve seen numerous debates as to what is classified as street art and felt mixed opinions as the mainstream art world has been embracing the eclectic world of street art beyond anyone’s comprehension.

To have predicted the enormity and hysteria that was to evolve would have meant you’d be sitting like a fat cat with multiple digits clocked up in the bank – thanks to a wise investment on a Banksy. Good for some. But the majority of enthusiasts have had to settle for sitting on the sidelines, observing the climatic hysteria through multi-media formats such as news, books, blogs, galleries, walls and now film.

Thanks to a crazed French man who was in the right place at the right time, Thierry Guetta, we now are able to retrieve an insight into the secretive world of some of the worlds most prolific and respected street art luminaries.

Thierry Guetta was a man with a obsessive compulsive habit of filming anything that moved, whom thanks to happenstance ended up on a unpredictable, raucous and wild adventure recording (borderline stalking) and acting as an accomplice to some of the worlds most influential street artists: Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, Borf, Swoon, Zeus and the infamous Banksy.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a film not just about street art, but about the hype, the hysteria and the celebrity. Featuring perspectives and out-takes from Banksy and Shepard Fairey on the past decade. Their experience with Thierry Guetta, who after an epic editing failure of his footage, is advised to ditch the camera and reach for the spray paint.

What follows none could have imagined! The artists themselves aren’t quite sure what to make of it and there is apparent guilt and distaste to the outcome, which all I will say is Mr.Brain Wash! a.k.a MBW.

“Mr. Brainwash is an enigma. I want to hug him one second and smack him the next. He is awesome, infuriating, almost impossible to define, but if an artist is defined by relentless, obsessive passion, then MBW is definitely an artist. Which kind of artist though? When I first met MBW he was a film maker. He started documenting me putting art up on the streets and in galleries back in ‘99. He has hundreds of hours of footage and often risked his neck climbing with a camera to very dangerous spots. MBW’s camera was ALWAYS on.” –Shepard Fairey

“Mr. Brainwash is a force of nature, he’s a phenomenon. And I don’t mean that in a good way.”- Banksy

Who: Doco maker:  Thierry Guetta. Artists: Shepard Fairey, Mr. Brainwash, Space Invader, pace Invader,Borf, Swoon, Zeus and the infamous Banksy
What: Street Art Documentary
Where: ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square, Melbourne
When: Month of June
Damage: $10-15