Ben Wilson paints a Chewing Gum Trail across the Millenium Bridge

Street artist Ben Wilson is unique. While his medium is acrylic his canvas is chewing gum. He’s become known as The Chewing Gum Man for the miniature gum paintings that you can find dotted around the globe.

Ben Wilson, aka The Chewing Gum Man, is an artist famous for his beautiful miniature paintings on chewing gum. His work sits outside the gallery space and in the public domain, it’s there for everyone. Ben’s chewing gum picture trail, that runs from St. Paul’s, across the Millennium Bridge and into the Tate Modern, has particularly piqued the interests of London’s many visitors – and it’s this which we want to celebrate with the book: Ben Wilson – The Millennium Bridge Gum Trail. Click here to see the Kickstarter Campaign


Ben Wilson is a familiar sight on the Millenium Bridge

“Chewing gum art evolves out of the environment rather than imposing the image on the environment,” says Ben. “It’s determined by the shape, or the human context – any people I encounter when I’m working.” They stop to observe, curious as to why he is lying on the ground painting. Some ask questions, “what are you doing?”, “why are you doing that?”. Ben is happy to chat and explain what and why. One of those reasons is to give a little space back to people in an environment dominated by advertising and other messaging that we have no say over. “On the bridge, things are happening on a different scale” he says. “There isn’t the fractiousness of traffic and noise. It’s an area where people from all around the world meet – the chewing gum paintings become a celebration of everyday life and people – their nationalities, religions and their belief systems.”


A landscape on Chewing Gum of St Pauls and the Millenium Bridge

Often people come around to telling Ben their own story and ask him if he’ll paint a picture for them. They’re all carrying thoughts, burdens, mysteries, hopes – which Ben transforms to leave a long-lasting mark of remembrance or celebration on a meticulously worked chewing gum splat. And why chewing gum? Ben wants to turn a thoughtless action, something that is casually spat out and trodden into the ground, into a thoughtful one.

Ben’s work sits in the public domain like few other artists; if you were to visit his Millennium Bridge gallery it might take more than a day to take in the 600+ of his paintings – the accident of shape, environment and the thoughts of hundreds of passers-by, brought together and translated into miniature art works.


Chewing Gum art by Ben Wilson

Abstract art on the Millenium Bridge by Ben Wilson

Pop Art Chewing Gum by Ben Wilson

Ben is an activist, beyond the legalities governing painting within a public space (the chewing gums remain under the ownership of the people who spat them out). He’s also been discretely placing his art works within the Tate Modern. Gallery spaces worldwide define what is, and isn’t, accepted and recognised as art – what belongs and what doesn’t. Ben believes his work has just as much a right to be in these curated spaces, as anywhere else. “Chewing gum art celebrates diversity of thought and diversity of action. Hopefully through my work I can promote more direct action on a grass roots level. More and more people feel out of control and I’m saying we can find creative solutions to make things happen in different ways.”

This was a guest post for Inspiring City by David Reeve. A kickstarter campaign has been launched to raise money for ‘Ben Wilson – The Millennium Bridge Trail’ a new book on his unique work. Click here to see the Kickstarter Campaign


Ben Wilson working on the Millenium Bridge

A selection of works on Chewing Gum by Ben Wilson

Chewing Gum art in the Turbine Hall in the Tate

Link to the original article here.

back
21er Haus · Abstract Expressionism · Advice · Aesthetics · Africa · African American · Ai Weiwei · Albrecht Dürer · Alcohol · Ali Cavanaugh · Amazon · Amsterdam · Andy Warhol · Animals · Animation · Antiquity · Apartheid · Archaeology · Architecture · Art History · Art installation · Art Market · Art nouveau · Art per se · Art Pharmacy · Art project · Art reception · Art Stage · Artemisia Gentileschi · Artist Project · Artist reunion · Artists about Art · Asad Raza · Asia · Astronomy · Atelier · Auction · Australia · Authenticity · Bach · Banksy · Barcelona · Baroque · Battle of the Sexes · Beauty · Belgium · Ben Enwonwu · Benin · Berlin · Bernini · Biennale · Bike · Bill Traylor · Biography · Biology · Border Film Project · Border-crossing · British Museum · Bronze · Budapest · Butterfly · Cameroon · Campbell’s Soup · Canada · Caravaggio · Cartoon · Cat · Charles Edward Perugini · Charles François Daubigny · Charts · Chicago · Children · China · Christian Art · Christianity · Cinema · City · Cityscape · Climate · Cloth · Clothes · Collection · Colours · Comic · Community · Construction · Consumption · Contemporary Art · Contemporary History · Count Ibex Collection · Countrysite · Cowboys · Craft · Crafting · Cuban Art · Cubism · Customize · Damien Hirst · Danny Lyon · Darkness · David Eichenberg · David Hockney · David Levinthal · Death · Debate · Deception · Decoration · Design · Destination · Detroit · Diego Rivera · Digi-Arts · Dimension · Diorama · Discrimination · Discussion · DNA · Dog · Domestic space · Drawing · Earthquake · Edmund Charles Tarbell · Education · Edward Hopper · Edwynn Houk Gallery · Egypt · Electricity · Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun · Emotions · Erasure · Ernest Lawson · Ernest Mancoba · Erwin Blumenfeld · Ethic · Ethnology · Eugène Delacroix · Eva Lewarne · Events · Exhibition · Experiment · Fake · Family · Fashion · Featured Artist · Feminism · Figurative Art · Film · Fire · Flowers · Food · Form · France · Frankfurt · Frederick Goodall · French art · Frida Kahlo · Friendship · Furniture · Futurism · Gallery · Games · Garden · Geometry · George Sand · Gerard David · Gerhard Richter · Germany · Getty · Ghana · Ghosts · Gifts · Giotto · Giovanni Bellini (Giambellino) · Glass · Goethe · Gold · Good Idea · Gothic · Goya · Graffiti · Halcyon Gallery · Handcraft · Hans von Aachen · Harlem · Health · History · Horoscope · Huang Binhong · Hungarian National Gallery · Hyperrealism · Ibrahim El Salahi · Identity · Illustration · Imagination · Impressionism · India · Individuum · Indonesia · Interieur · Internet · Interview · Iran · Israel · Italy · Ivory · Ivory Coast · Jan van Scorel · Japan · Jasper Johns · Jaume Huguet · Jean Paul Gaultier · Jean-François Baudet · Jeff Koons · Jerusalem · JMW Turner · Joachim Patinir · Johannes Vermeer · John Singer Sargent · Joseph Karl Stieler · Journey · Jules Breton · Kaari Upson · Karel Appel · Karl Lagerfeld · Katsushika Hokusai · Kerry James Marshall · Keto · Kurt Hüpfner · Landscape · Latin America · Leasure · Leonardo da Vinci · Lifestyle · Lili Ország · Lisbon · Literature · London · Lorena Kloosterboer · Lorenzo Lotto · Los Angeles · Louver Gallery · Louvre · Love · Luck · Macchiavelli · Madrid · Magic · Malangatana · Malick Sidibé · Map · Marble · Marcel Duchamp · Marco Grassi · Maria Lassnig · Martha Pulina · Mary Stevenson Cassatt · Masterpiece Project · Material Culture · Matisse · Matthew Cherry · Max Friedländer · MC Escher · MEAM · Mexican Art · Miami · Michelangelo · Middle Ages · Mies van der Rohe · Minimalism · Mining · Mitch Griffiths · Mixed Media · Mobility · Modern Art · Mona Lisa · Moon · Morto da Feltre · Mosaic · Mozambique · Mulan Gallery · Munich · Murillo · Muse · Museum · Music · Mythology · Nathan Zhou · Native Americans · Nature · Neoclassic · Netherlands · New York · Nigeria · Norway · Nudity · Object · Oil paintings · Old masters · Orientalism · Osman Hamdi Bey · Pablo Picasso · Palestine · Paper · Paris · Pattern · Peace of paper · Pen and Ink · Pencil · Perspective · Peter Lindbergh · Philadelphia · Philipp Weber · Philosophy · Photographs · Photography · Places · Poetry · Poland · Politics · Pop Art · Porcelain · Portrait · Poster · Pottery · Power · Prado Museum · Prague · Presents · Printing · Protest · Psychology · Rainforest · Ramon Pichot · Raphael · Reading · Realism · Recycling · Religion · Renaissance · René Jules Lalique · René Magritte · Restauration · Review · Rings · Robert Rauschenberg · Roccoco · Roger Kemp · Romanticism · Rome · Rosa JH Berland · Royal Academy of Arts · Ruins · Russia · Rybolovlev · SAAM · Saatchi Gallery · Salvador Dali · Sappho · School · Science · Science Fiction · Sculpture · Seattle · Self-expression · Selfie · Sensation · Seoul · Sexuality · Shadow · Shakespeare · Shana Levenson · Shanghai · Shchukin · Sheryl Luxenburg · Show · Shuang Li · Singapore · Sketch · Slavery · Social Media · Society · Sophie Matisse · Sound · South Africa · Space · Spirituality · Sport · Spray painting · Städel Museum · Star Wars · State Hermitage Museum · Statistic · Still Life · Street Art · Strings · Surrealism · Surveillance · Sweden · Symmetry · Tanzania · Tate Britain · Tattoo · Technology · Temple · Textiles · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · The National Gallery · Theatre · Time · Tina Turner · Tips · Titian · Tom Watt · Tommy Hartung · Toronto · Townscape · TRAC · Travel · Turkey · UK · Underground · United Kingdom · United States · Urban Art · Urbanism · Valentin de Boulogne · Venice · Venus · Veronese · Vienna · Vincent Van Gogh · Voodoo · War · Warsaw · Washington D.C. · Water · Watercolor · Whitney Museum · Wild West · Women · World Culture Forum · World Press Freedom Day · Yoan Capote · Zhou B Art Center

Unable to display Facebook posts.
Show error

Error: Error validating application. Application has been deleted.
Type: OAuthException
Code: 190
Please refer to our Error Message Reference.