Wilson seems to have only one objective in terms of the things that he wants to find – and that is gum. Chewing gum. For the last six years he has scoured the street of London with one thing of his mind – to transform the gum that the everyday folks leave behind in to art.
First he finds a piece of gum (not too hard in London) which is obviously old and has little moisture left inside it. He heats it up with a burner and then lacquers it, which hardens the gum and creates a suitable surface for his acrylic paint. His special treatment ensures that the gum and paint come together in a way which gives his art something approaching permanent street presence.
Occasionally he will sign his work the chewing gum man but sometimes there is no room and you will mostly see his initials BW instead.. He estimates that he has painted something approaching eight thousand small but perfectly painted works of art in this manner.
There have been a few issues with the police who have twice arrested him for criminal damage. However, unlike the gum the charges did not stick as the act of spitting the gum on to the ground was the damage, not the painting of it afterwards.
He produces his own work but gladly takes commission from people and organisation – sometimes from unexpected sources. Recently the Royal Society of Chemistry asked him to create 118 paintings – one for each of the know elements.
One can only imagine whether the Ben Wilson’s work discourages people from leaving gum on the streets or, whether they do it more often purposefully to provide the artist with a wealth of new canvases, as it were.
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