Lying on his side on the surface of London’s iconic Millennium Bridge, artist Ben Wilson paints a piece of dried chewing gum trodden into the ground.
“The important thing is the gum is below the metal tread,” said 60-year-old Wilson, dressed in a paint-daubed orange jumpsuit. “The beauty of it is they’re all different shapes and sizes so there’s no conformity.”
What most people actively avoid or simply don’t see, Wilson views as an opportunity to turn a tiny piece of discarded rubbish into something beautiful. It’s also a way to delight passersby, enticing them to take a closer look underfoot.
Photo: Reuters
“By painting a picture which is so small, those that see it then discover a hidden world beneath their feet,” Wilson said.
“If they look then they see, so it’s about perception.”
Back in his north London studio, Wilson paints on the surface of a small mosaic tile which will be part of a collection that he sticks on the walls of London’s Underground train platforms, hidden in plain sight. The images are more personal than the chewing gum works, Wilson says, and represent
Photo: Reuters
an “intuitive visual diary.”
“The pictures are a celebration of my life and those that I care dearly about ... they are (also) a process of visual inquiry — trying to make sense of the world,” he said.
London-born Wilson was raised by artist parents and recalls working with clay from age three, with his first artist show at around 10 or 11 years old.
Photo: Reuters
His artwork developed into sculpture and large pieces in the natural environment before his interest turned to rubbish and discarded items from a consumerist world, like chewing gum, which he’s been painting for 19 years.
The top surface of the dried gum is not subject to local or national jurisdictions, creating a space where Wilson says he can paint without defacing public property.
“I found this little space where I could create a form of art where I could be spontaneous and do something which evolves out of the place in which it’s created,” Wilson said.
The artist has had much of his public street art removed by authorities — gum from the pavement or tiles from the Underground — but the hundreds of gum paintings on Millennium Bridge have been left untouched.
Last week the story of the giant illegal crater dug in Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃) emerged into the public consciousness. The site was used for sand and gravel extraction, and then filled with construction waste. Locals referred to it sardonically as the “Meinong Grand Canyon,” according to media reports, because it was 2 hectares in length and 10 meters deep. The land involved included both state-owned and local farm land. Local media said that the site had generated NT$300 million in profits, against fines of a few million and the loss of some excavators. OFFICIAL CORRUPTION? The site had been seized
Next week, candidates will officially register to run for chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). By the end of Friday, we will know who has registered for the Oct. 18 election. The number of declared candidates has been fluctuating daily. Some candidates registering may be disqualified, so the final list may be in flux for weeks. The list of likely candidates ranges from deep blue to deeper blue to deepest blue, bordering on red (pro-Chinese Communist Party, CCP). Unless current Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) can be convinced to run for re-election, the party looks likely to shift towards more hardline
Sept. 15 to Sept. 21 A Bhutanese princess caught at Taoyuan Airport with 22 rhino horns — worth about NT$31 million today — might have been just another curious front-page story. But the Sept. 17, 1993 incident came at a sensitive moment. Taiwan, dubbed “Die-wan” by the British conservationist group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), was under international fire for being a major hub for rhino horn. Just 10 days earlier, US secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt had recommended sanctions against Taiwan for its “failure to end its participation in rhinoceros horn trade.” Even though Taiwan had restricted imports since 1985 and enacted
Enter the Dragon 13 will bring Taiwan’s first taste of Dirty Boxing Sunday at Taipei Gymnasium, one highlight of a mixed-rules card blending new formats with traditional MMA. The undercard starts at 10:30am, with the main card beginning at 4pm. Tickets are NT$1,200. Dirty Boxing is a US-born ruleset popularized by fighters Mike Perry and Jon Jones as an alternative to boxing. The format has gained traction overseas, with its inaugural championship streamed free to millions on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Taiwan’s version allows punches and elbows with clinch striking, but bans kicks, knees and takedowns. The rules are stricter than the
RSS