‘Modern art is crap’
Legend has it that Banksy once stenciled the steps of the tate modern with those words, in the style of ‘mind the step’. In the morning officials had it removed, only to have someone come along and say, wasn’t that a Banksy original? Love him or hate him, Banksy work is often thought provoking or just plain funny.
A friend had pencilled in, Exit through the gift shop, which was shown along with a host of other Banksy TV on channel 4 last night. Tuning in it was hard to know what to expect, at the start I thought it was genuine, by the end I wasn’t sure, as the documentary was almost a too perfect metaphor for modern art. In that Banksy and so many modern artist start off saying that no they are not selling out, they do art for arts sake.
Then there work starts selling for a truck load of cash and they start knocking out the goods. Somehow Banksy manages to edit a truck load of footage together to tell a story of almost creating a new monster of the modern art world Mr Brainwash or MBW. Who manages to make an art show with not one original thought, a collection of rip off of others work so blatant its funny.
Exit through the gift shop is a story about what happens when commerce and art collide, with the tell tale message of Banksy’s humour throughout.