London’s chewing gum artist - video Dailymotion

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National World - LocalTV

7 months ago

An interview with artist Ben Wilson, the chewing gum man.

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00:00London is a city defined by its history, diversity and constant evolution, and art is a fundamental

00:10part of the landscape, found not only in major galleries but also in public spaces that people

00:17move through every day. It's a place where creative expression takes many forms, some

00:22traditional and others completely unexpected. Ben Wilson is an artist in London whose incredible

00:31work actually takes place outside the Tate Modern on the Millennium Bridge. Also known as the Chewing Gum

00:40Man, Ben has been transforming discarded pieces of chewing gum into miniature works of art using

00:47inspiration from everyday Londoners, our tourists who walk along the bridge leaving colourful

00:53messages to loved ones, completely transforming litter.

00:58My name is Ben Wilson and people call me the Chewing Gum Man and for the last 19 years I've

01:04been transforming discarded chewing gum into art. Because I was looking on the street and

01:11I saw this gum, I was thinking what is it? Well I didn't know what it was, all these black

01:17marks everywhere, and then I realised it's chewing gum. And I started more and more, you know,

01:24thinking my god that's terrible, people have all been so thoughtless, how could they have

01:28done that? But then I suddenly thought, if I paint on it, so suddenly then art could happen

01:34anywhere in a spontaneous way. And I thought, my god that's absolutely amazing, you know, that

01:40I can make art happen in this random way. And I like the idea that you made a piece of art

01:49in this kind of environment where it was some old bit of gum, and you're making something

01:54really beautiful, almost like a gem, something like really special, a piece of jewellery.

02:00But when the bridge is cleaned, many of these tiny pieces of artwork are at risk of being lost.

02:07In fact, a campaign was launched last year to protect Ben's artwork from being removed

02:13during a deep clean of Millennium Bridge.

02:16Now I'm saying it's art, why destroy it? And even like pictures which are faded, they often

02:22have like meanings to people. So if you take that out, the actual picture connects to the

02:28picture that the person has in their mind. So by taking the picture out, you're kind of

02:33in a way, just let it fade. So if it's a love message, or if it's a rest in peace picture,

02:42you know, like it just, the picture kind of gradually fades away, but the person still

02:46has the memory in their mind. You know, what I love about the pictures is that they celebrate

02:55people from all walks of life.

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