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Exit Through The Gift Shop Essay

Decent Essays

Throughout the time that humans have created pieces of artwork, the interpretation of whether or not the general public considers it art changes. In the past, being an artist was highly respected such as in the times of the Renaissance where they were alongside philosophers and other of the kind, examples being Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Nowadays, the arts are often looked down upon and disregarded and do not receive the respect they deserve. One form of art that is typically looked at with disgust and lives a very short lifespan is street art. Street art is the main focus of Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which focuses on two sub-themes which were the actual creation of street art and its history along with the uprising …show more content…

At one point in the film, street art became the rave and was being auctioned off in auction houses, but Banksy and other artists did not believe that the focus for their artwork was about the money; rather, it was the passion and expressional aspect of their art pieces. He believed that Thierry's video footage would be the perfect way to depict this passion, but a majority of the footage Thierry had was unusable. However, the usable footage that was used in the documentary was enough to demonstrate the true passion some street artists had. Many have different motives of creating their artwork as well. For example, Borf, creates street art in commemoration of his friend that passed away and even his alias is in memory of the friend who passed. Banksy’s purpose of creating art is often as a form to criticize social problems or just for humor at times. A very striking example of his artwork as a form to express social problems was when he went to the Gaza strip and created a trompe-l'oeil pieces of street art against the wall, which at the time was experiencing a vast amount of conflict and civil unrest. This was extremely dangerous, but Banksy managed to place it on the wall without any harm, which shows his dedication to his

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