4/20/10

Kiss and Tell: Street Art

I was lucky enough to see this film after an agent friend promised "you won't regret it" in his adorable agenty way and bought tickets. It was incredibly entertaining; I didn't doze off once despite the bottle of white wine I had bathed in at a friend's pool that afternoon.
I confess to know very little about the nefarious underworld of street art. I had only heard of Shepard Fairey (the artist of the iconic Obama face) because my friends are friends of his and have his art on their walls (thus making me only two degrees of separation from street art awesomeness). The only other personal knowledge I have about the subject, besides watching Gangland and the opening sequence of West Side Story, is that my first kiss (circa '98) was with a graffiti artist in a polo shirt. And no, I didn't carry his spray cans in my backpack and keep a look out. We were sitting on a couch at a friend's house while my friend and her boyfriend abandoned us to go listen to the Rent soundtrack. I slowly flipped through a Delia's teen fashion catalog, seemingly engrossed in the fashion horoscopes, until I hit the last page and there was nothing left I could do but let him kiss me. Poor guy. It had to have been the worst kiss of his life. Apologies, Mr. G., if you ever read this.
Back to Banksy: The big drama with Exit Through the Gift Shop is whether or not it is a documentary or a fictionalized manipulation by the street artist known for pranks. 
 
My vote: it's fiction. But, I also don't really care. I laughed a lot. And I got to see a lot of amazing images. And for a couple of hours in the darkened arclight theatre, I got to feel like I was cool enough to be privy to Banksy's world, real or imagined.
Reading List:
Banksy Puzzles The New York Times. April 13th.
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