Analysis Of Exit Through The Gift Shop

Power and Exploitation: An Analysis of Exit Through the Gift Shop
It is human nature to desire power. Exit Through the Gift Shop, a film written by a street artist, helps portray the different ways people try to achieve power. The film follows Thierry Guetta on his journey to achieve agency through street art. While the film demonstrates how agency can be gained through perceived power, it is ultimately society that has control.
In the film, the street artists are able to gain agency through perceived power. One example of this is Shepard Fairey. He started by making street art to rebel against society, and in doing so, people perceived him as powerful. By rebelling against society, he appears to be powerful because he can escape societies

Since Thierry’s reason for creating street art was not about rebelling like Fairey’s, but about gaining agency, he helps change the meaning of street art. In this way, street art becomes less about rebelling from society, and more about using it to achieve fame and money. The idea of a changed meaning is brought up in Jean Baudrillard’s essay Simulacra And Simulations. Baudrillard talks about the hyperreal, which is “sheltered from the imaginary, and from any distinction between the real and the imaginary, leaving room only for the obitital recurrence of models and simulated generation of difference” (2). In other words, the original meaning of certain things is covered up over time through reproduction. Baudrillard’s idea of the hyperreal is demonstrated by Thierry; he is reproducing what he believes to be street art, and in doing so, the street art loses its original meaning of rebelling against society. John Fiske’s idea of incorporation relates to how the meaning of street art is changing. According to Fiske, incorporation is the ability of a company to exploit an idea “for their commercial interest” (Understanding Popular Culture 5). While Thierry is not part of a big company, in a way he is doing the same thing that they do; he is using a subcultural idea to make money. In exploiting street art, Thierry takes away the original meaning and reason for this subculture. It is in this way that Thierry achieves his agency. While Thierry illustrates that anyone can achieve power, he also illustrates that agency can only be achieved by exploiting others. The idea of power relating to exploiting others is an idea that has plagued humans for centuries. It is only through exploitation of the natives that America even exists and could rise as a nation. This is sad to think about because it means that for one person to rise, another has to