The Philosophy Club presented a screening of the street art documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” which was followed by a panel discussion that analyzed different issues in the art world.
Panel members included Roger Gastman, co-author of “The History of Graffiti” and co-curator of Moca’s “Art in the Streets,” Robert Wonser, adjunct professor of Sociology, and Melanie McQuitty, assistant professor of philosophy.
The film is a documentary based on the adventure of an amateur filmmaker, Thierry Guetta, who begins recording every aspect of his life only to stumble upon the world’s most infamous graffiti artist.
Assuming that Guetta is out to make a documentary, artists such as Shepard Fairey, Invader and even Banksy allow Guetta to film as they climb on buildings, temper with walls and create art as they leave a little piece of themselves in various locales around the world.
With a new art movement emerging from the underground, Guetta seeks to find British artist Banksy, who remains anonymous to all but his closest friends and colleagues.
When Guetta finally has the pleasure of meeting Banksy, he becomes his tour guide around the city of Los Angeles, where both begin working on Banksy’s show: “Barely Legal.”
After Banksy discovers that Guetta has no real intentions of editing any of the footage and that he’s also a lousy filmmaker, he sends Guetta to create his own art.
Guetta takes Banksy’s orders as a new goal and immediately starts making art based off everything he learned from following other street artists.
Soon Guetta adopts the alias of “Mr. Brainwash,” and later manages to organize his own art show titled, “Life is Beautiful.”
With the help of both Fairey and Banksy, “Mr. Brainwash” gains front page interest from LA Weekly, creating hype for the new artist and his show.
An unexpected crowd of more than 2,000 people lined up outside a former studio in Hollywood to see the anticipated show.
Guetta quickly reached success after selling several pieces for thousand of dollars.
Though the film did not address the issues that haven risen in the art world, students were able to ask questions and have intellectual debates with the panelists regarding the differences between graffiti and street art, whether both forms are vandalism and if the hype is part of a marketing strategy.
“People look at graffiti and street art the same,” said panelist Roger Gastman. “Although they are kissing cousins, they’re both different”.
Gastman continued to explain that graffiti became widespread first and that it was simply based on writing one’s name over and over again.
“Street art is always almost icon based,” said Gastman. “It’s often much more digestible to the public”.
Students such as Daniel Pickens, neuropsychology major, felt strongly about art in general.
“I feel like art is beautiful, and if you institutionalize it, you’re taking away it’s centric value” said Pickens.
Questions regarding the movie’s main character were also brought up.
Some felt like Guetta was just a joke imitating the works of both Fairey and Banksy; others simply wanted to know if this new movement was considered vandalism.
“It is vandalism,” said Gastman. “Some of it is just better vandalism than the others.”
According to Robert Wonser, adjunct professor of Sociology, the art world is a largely saturated marketing place where art is more highly acceptable to an audience when it’s in a gallery, as opposed to the streets.
“Graffiti, in it’s purest form, is vandalism and it’s fun,” said Wonser.
The Philosophy club will host it’s next event, “Philosophers Cabaret” May 23 inside the Great Hall.
A special guest will be featured in order to discuss the multimedia presentation.