LONDON, Sept 3 — Lying on his facet on the floor of London’s iconic Millennium Bridge, artist Ben Wilson paints a chunk of dried chewing gum trodden into the bottom.
“The essential factor is the gum is under the steel tread,” mentioned 60-year-old Wilson, wearing a paint-daubed orange jumpsuit. “The great thing about it’s they’re all completely different sizes and styles so there’s no conformity.”
What most individuals actively keep away from or just don’t see, Wilson views as a possibility to show a tiny piece of discarded garbage into one thing stunning. It’s additionally a method to delight passersby, attractive them to take a more in-depth look underfoot.
“By portray an image which is so small, those who see it then uncover a hidden world beneath their feet,” Wilson mentioned. “If they give the impression of being then they see, so it’s about notion.”
Back in his north London studio, Wilson paints on the floor of a small mosaic tile which will probably be a part of a set that he sticks on the partitions of London’s Underground practice platforms, hidden in plain sight. The photos are extra private than the chewing gum works, Wilson says, and symbolize an “intuitive visible diary”.
Ben Wilson, exhibits his portray on a chunk of chewing gum, caught on a brick, in his residence studio in Muswell Hill, London, Britain, August 21, 2023. — eNM pic
“The photos are a celebration of my life and those who I care dearly about … they’re (additionally) a technique of visible inquiry — making an attempt to make sense of the world,” he mentioned.
London-born Wilson was raised by artist dad and mom and remembers working with clay from age three, together with his first artist present at round 10 or 11 years previous.
His paintings developed into sculpture and enormous items within the pure atmosphere earlier than his curiosity turned to garbage and discarded gadgets from a consumerist world, like chewing gum, which he’s been portray for 19 years.
The high floor of the dried gum shouldn’t be topic to native or nationwide jurisdictions, creating an area the place Wilson says he can paint with out defacing public property.
“I discovered this little area the place I might create a type of artwork the place I might be spontaneous and do one thing which evolves out of the place through which it’s created,” Wilson mentioned.
The artist has had a lot of his public road artwork eliminated by authorities — gum from the pavement or tiles from the Underground — however the a whole bunch of gum work on Millennium Bridge have been left untouched. — eNM
