‘I make art on wads of old chewing gum – it’s taken me all over the world’

You’ve probably seen his artwork on street corners, around bins, and even under your shoe.

But you might not know that much about Ben Wilson, the artist better known as ‘Chewing Gum Man’.

Wilson is famous for his miniature paintings, which he has created on wads of chewing gum discarded and flattened on pavements for the past 22 years.

Speaking about his work, he said: ‘You’re taking something which is spat out and discarded and then transforming it into something positive.

‘In a consumerist society, chewing gum is something that can be created very fast, and it’s very cheap – it’s artificial in every sense.’ 

Wilson’s art has landed him in trouble with the law more than once. 

He faced one court case claiming his paintings are on public property, which he managed to win on a ‘technicality’ because the gum is on public property, rather than being public property. 

He also had to fight to save hundreds of his pieces on the Millennium Bridge, which have been under threat of removal due to renovations. 

But he says it’s all worth it, as his unconventional art is a great way to connect him to the people around him.

Wilson has created hundreds of dedications to the people who pass by as he works, to mark births, deaths, marriages or simply to honour a request for something as simple as a painting of cheese and crackers. 

‘It’s nice to actually do a picture for a person in a truly giving way,’ he said, despite the financial challenges of creating free art in a consumerist world.

‘It’s about acknowledging people; when people are alienated and disconnected, that’s when you have problems.

‘But also it’s about freedom of expression, because often you find that everything’s very controlled, so it’s nice to do art in a more spontaneous way.’ 

His work has taken him everywhere, from the Arctic Circle to South Africa.

In one of his most challenging tasks, he created a painting for a doctor living outside Gaza City of an olive tree growing around ruins and the word ‘steadfastness’.  

But it’s London – his home, and the place where most of his art is based – that he particularly loves.

He says its residents display ‘diversity of action, diversity of thought and diversity of people’, something Wilson thinks is desperately needed today. 

Wilson opened his north London home and studio to the public last weekend, displaying an eclectic mix of his renowned chewing gum art, wooden sculptures and his ‘diary’, made up of an ‘intuitive’ painting each day on tiny tiles.

Selling art at the open house will give Wilson the means to carry on makingstreet art and making more connections with people, he told Metro.

Even after completing hundreds of requests, he has countless notebooks filled with more that he has not been able to get around to. 

According to his girlfriend Freya Cummings, an artist in her own right, these unfinished requests ‘haunt him’.