Look down to discover chewing gum art in London

Travel get more interesting at times when you begin stumbling upon wonderful undiscovered facets of a city or a country. And during my 2017 trip to London (which is still going on… and I do pray I meet and interview this chewing gum artist) I happened to read about chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge which is a pedestrian walkway linking St. Pauls with the Tate Modern on either side of the River Thames.

If you will be visiting this beautiful city or any other one in UK, we recommend you to visit road legal quads UK to find the perfect transport for your stay.

The view from the Millennium Bridge is awesome… and, therefore, it is easy to miss sighting chewing gum art on the bridge

An artist we met in Tate Modern said Wilson’s art was cheekily democratic and ‘a wee bit whimsical for my liking, but you can walk on the bridge there and see how much of it you appreciate’. The CultureTrip writes that Ben Wilson or the Chewing-Gum man has been at it for more than ten years and has ‘systematically turned over 10,000 trodden-in chewing gums that pepper the streets of London into miniature canvasses.  He has perfected a technique using a blowtorch and layers of acrylic paint and lacquer to make tiny, shining works of art at our feet. His subject matter ranges from minuscule yet realistic London scenes to brightly coloured abstract patterns and strange creatures’. His own Wikipedia page mentions that he ‘started experimenting with occasional chewing-gum paintings in 1998, and in October 2004 began working on them full-time. He has created more than 10,000 of these works on pavements all over the UK and parts of Europe. Most of his work is found in Muswell Hill, however’.

Indulge in the old world charm of the imperial on this Europe tours 2018 deals of Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Go back in time as you enjoy the sites, beautiful architecture and more. Visit www.giltravel.com to learn more. If you’re looking for a fun and more exciting activity, hop to this website at https://www.escaperoomsbristol.co.uk/.

Now comes the most interesting part of our story of discovering Ben’s artworks. We walked up and down the Millennium Bridge at least thrice over two days and returned home without sighting them. I said, ‘This must be another tourism gimmick and a hoax. Or even if this is true, this form of art cannot possibly survive the thousands of footfalls on the bridge.’

Today, Specky, my wife said, ‘Let’s go hunting for chewing gum art again.’

‘Again?’

‘Yes, again. We are going to walk slowly and we will NOT look up. Nor will we look at the boat cruises down in the river. We will simply hunt for these miniatures.’

And so we boarded 381 from Jamaica Street to reach this spot just behind Tate Modern and began Operation Walk-n-hunt. Believe me, the first one we sighted wasn’t bright and appeared smudged and fed-up of people stomping it hundreds of times each day. But then something magical happened. Miraculously our eyes started spotting these really minute artworks and I must have got down on my haunches to click so many pictures that I now have a numb thigh. Yes, right in front of us was a massive art gallery in the open, free of cost, and people walked over it without as much as an appreciative smile for the artist. We are indeed a world in a hurry, I thought. But then a young traveler from the US stopped and asked, ‘What are you photographing?’

‘Artworks,’ I said.

‘Art? Where?’

‘Here,’ I said, ‘Right here. Between the steel grooves. Look carefully. Look closely. And once you notice the first, you will see them all.’

Tourists do not know that in their hurry they are missing an art-form. This youngster stopped and asked – and was happy to discover Ben’s art

The little was visibly excited to discover this treasure on the bridge

This seller probably doesn’t even know that an artist was here on the bridge painting on discarded chewing gum

He saw one of the artworks and smiled and called his friends and we had a few more tourists falling in love with Ben’s art. Specky was, in the meanwhile explaining their existence to an Indian family who had a curious daughter. But the rest of the tourists went by… probably wondering what we were doing on our knees on a bridge.

These works of art have discarded chewing gum as the canvas and so doesn’t qualify as vandalism of public property. There is technically no criminal damage to property as Ben simply ‘first heats the gum with a small blow torch, then coats the gum with three layers of acrylic enamel. He uses special acrylic paints to paint his pictures, finishing each with a clear lacquer seal. The paintings take from two hours to three days to produce. Subject matter ranges from personal requests to animals, portraits or whatever whimsy pops into his head’, so reads the text on his Wikipedia page.

These paintings are dated and if you go through my pictures carefully you will notice that they are not from a single year. The other cute fact that we noticed are the messages that seem to be for strangers, if not for friends and relatives. One article on the web does mention that the passers-by do engage with the gum-paintings, ‘both in their completed state and sometimes as they are being made, interacting with the artist who will take requests: adding names, dates and symbols important to an interested stranger’. So if you are in London and happen to come across Ben lying down on the bridge or some footpath doing another miniature, you can talk to him, and who knows, you too are immortalized in one of his numerous works in London. So far as the subject of his artworks is concerned, Ben has been quoted as saying that ‘sometimes I can look at the shape and I can see what I want to create…the gum gets stuck between the tread and takes on an echo or a form of the bridge.’

Discovering art in London is more than just fascinating… and we are happy for our inclination to observe and discover little known or largely unknown facets of this wonderful city.

.

.

.

Works of art that fly straight into your heart…

This artwork has been here since 2013

This artwork has lost a lot of colour trampled by hurrying tourists but was made in 2014

Created in 2017… by Ben Wilson, the chewing gum man of London

Verity and Veronica must have met and requested the artist to add their name here…

Violet, in 2015, must be pursuing inner peace… 🙂

Serena loves Merino! These messages on these artworks make me smile

Even a marriage proposal features in these artworks!

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

Chewing gum art on the Millennium Bridge in London

.

.

.

Arvind Passey
26 June 2017