Chewing gum art trail

Ben Wilson is an artist who uses chewing gum as his medium. Around Muswell Hill and Crouch End you may find him laying on the pavement painting.

He has been doing it since 2004. Many are dedicated to people who pass by. He first softens the oval of flattened gum a little with a blowtorch, sprays it with lacquer and then applies three coats of acrylic enamel, usually to a design from his latest book of requests that come from people who stop and crouch and talk. He uses tiny modellers’ brushes, quick-drying his work with a lighter flame as he goes along, and then seals it with more lacquer. Each painting takes a few hours and can last for many years.

This explanation featured in a piece on Wilson in The Guardian newspaper:

Wilson’s eccentric acts of daily creation make more sense the more he explains them. He is energetically interested in the threatened idea of public space. Technically, in painting gum – as he has established in the courts – he is not painting public property or commercially owned real estate. His pictures are designed to create a tiny stepping-stone mosaic of common land across the city. Gum, he suggests, is the ultimate consumer product: it has no food value at all, it hardly biodegrades, and attempting to remove it is a costly and laborious full-time job. “So there is some symbolism in transforming something thoughtlessly spat out into something meaningful.”

I ran from Lewisham to the Thames and crossed Waterloo Bridge. From there I traversed Regent's Park, Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath before making my way through Highgate Wood to Muswell Hill high above the city. 

It wasn't long before I spotted the brightly coloured artworks on the pavement outside shops and beside pedestrian crossings and bus shelters. I bent down to photograph them which drew the attention of others walking by.

Here are the ones I managed to locate.