Old chewing gum that gets stuck on the sidewalks is pretty hard to be removed. Dropped unconsciously, these white spots form an uneven pattern throughout our cities. It costs quite some money to clean the streets from unwanted gum each year. Ben Wilson had a better idea.
The English wood carver and street artist developed a sort of Make-up concept for that issue. Very patiently he paints flat chewing gum spots with all kinds of motives, creating small pieces of art everywhere. By now Wilson has painted more than 10,000 pieces of discarded gum in various cities in Europe. He even paints motives on request and while working and lying on the ground with his equipment, he attracts a great deal of attention with people passing by crowding around him. Benson was arrested once during his work, but soon released because he is not damaging anyone’s property with his art. Actually he is just painting on rubbish. His initiative derives from a strong aversion to unnecessary waste.
An original way of embellishing the streets with very detailed artwork. You should take a look yourself. Check Ben Wilson’s gallery of chewing gum art on flickr.
