Exit through the Gift Shop Starring Thierry Guetta

Street art and graffiti has the capability to change lives, as is seen in documentary “Exit through the Gift Shop.” In the film the audience meets Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant currently residing in the United States, and learns an odd habit he acquired at a young age. He always had to have a video camera rolling; he was constantly documenting his life. He was obsessed with remembering everything that happened in his life so he got every part of his life recorded.

When he was eleven years old Theirry tragically lost his mother and found out in the most horrendous way. “The day that I found out about my mother I was at school,” he said, “I remember I was on the playground. Somebody came up and said ‘you’re laughing huh?’ from behind the gate. ‘Your mother is dead.’ The man said.” This was the start of his obsession with recording everything in his life, even if it went nowhere but into a box, never to be seen again.

His habit soon became a driving point in his life. During a trip to visit his family that lives in France, he was introduced to the world of street art. That trip that he took in 1999 helped set the stones to the life that Theirry had yet to discover what it would create. In Banksy’s movie, it explains how the simple idea of putting your joy, or something that you love, up on a wall for everyone to see was an amazing thing. His cousin, the man who initially inspired him was making characters from the game Space Invaders out of tiles which he then proceeded to glue onto walls and various other places to draw the eye of the surrounding population. His cousin, known to the public as Space Invader, was a big name in the street art community, not only to help start the spread of street art but to also assist in in...

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.... While most stereotypical street artists wouldn’t go all out for their first show, he did. Mr. Brainwash rented out a 15,000 square foot warehouse filled with his art. He titled the show “Life is Beautiful.” His first art show as nothing less than a success, 4,000 people wandering the halls lined by the art that he created was a dream come true for every street artist.

Theirry Guetta was a beautiful example of how seeing a simple piece of graffiti can influence a person and how they live their lives. While his life was building up to the moment he became rich off of his creativity, it helped him become the man who he is today. No matter how unique his life has been, one thing has been a constant in his life, along with many others; He was influence by the color and personality shown through a piece of art, which was the intent in the first place.