LOS ANGELES, CA - Street artist Banksy's first film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is up for an Oscar -- and it seems the subversive Briton may be waging an unorthodox awards campaign on the walls and billboards of Los Angeles. Several examples of graffiti bearing the hallmarks of Banksy's style and humor have turned up in areas of the city in recent days, including a Charlie Brown figure apparently bent on arson, and a cocktail-swigging Mickey Mouse. ARTKABINETT art collector social network has reported on the work of such major grafitti artists as Banksy, ZEVS, and RETNA.
The Mickey Mouse graffiti, first spotted on Wednesday, featured a lascivious Mickey grabbing the breast of a model and appears on a billboard opposite the Directors Guild of America offices near Hollywood's Sunset Strip. The billboard was taken down late on Wednesday.
The story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work.The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards.
Other pieces noted by bloggers and graffiti artists in recent days include a giant Oscar-like gold figure wearing a hoodie and standing on a red carpet being guarded by "Star Wars" style troopers, and a young boy brandishing a machine gun loaded with colorful crayons.
Representatives of the elusive artist, whose identity is unknown in public, could not immediately be reached for comment. Banksy is thought to be based in the southwestern English city of Bristol. He first drew attention in the early 1990s, and his street art pieces now sell for huge sums.
"Exit Through the Gift Shop" -- billed as "the world's first Street Art disaster movie" -- premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and at that time, Banksy hit Park City, Utah, where the festival is held, to paint up the streets.
The movie, which looks not just at Banksy's work but how he has inspired numerous others in cities around the world, was nominated last month for a best documentary Oscar.
The Oscars, which are the world's top film awards, will be handed out at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb 27.
If the subjects of a film are the type of people you absolutely wouldnít want to hang out with in real life, yet you donít want the movie end, you know you are seeing something good. And that goes doubly for a documentary.
"Exit Through The Gift Shop" tells, in its own unique way, the story of 21st Century street art. It is a comedy, an adventure, an expose, a commercial, an unashamed bit of posturing and, at times, one of the most infuriatingly / innovatively ìmetaî motion pictures Iíve ever seen.
It is required viewing for all undergraduates and anyone who likes to roll up their sleeves and argue ìwhat is art? It is also smart enough to never look you dead in the eye and ask an idiotic question like ìwhat is art?î
The film is credited to Banksy, the most secretive and, in my opinion, clever of the underground, not-quite-legal artists on the ìscene.î The bulk of the footage, however, was shot, independently, by a man named Thierry Guetta.
We travel with him as artists flee street cops and Disneyland security, all in the name of making a subversive statement. How ownership of the project moved from Guetta to Banksy is very much central to the story ñ and only a gossip would give that away in a review.
