Royal Society of Chemistry showcase The Periodic Table - Artist Ben Wilson paints images on chewing gum spat out on street

Published: 16 April 2010
by RAJ SANDHU and JOSH LOEB

FORGET binge drinking and bus stop vandals, for many people dried-up chewing gum is the urban menace of our times. 

Now a solution to sticky shoes and pock-marked paving stones could be in sight.

The Piccadilly-based Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is in talks with a hitherto elusive street artist, Ben Wilson, whose whereabouts were so secretive it offered a reward to find him, to paint a series of miniature depictions of the Periodic Table on  blobs of gum.  

Academics at the society got the idea from seeing one of his pieces of work outside their headquarters.

Jon Edwards, a spokesman for the RSC said: “He’s sort of a minor London celebrity and never asks for payment as he only does work he wants to do. 

“If and when Ben starts doing the work, the idea is that all around central London we’d be seeing different bits of chewing gum with paintings of elements in the Periodic Table on them.”

The 46-year-old artist has painted on more than 10,000 pieces of gum that have been spat out on the street, and many can be seen on the streets of Westminster.

He told the West End Extra: “Painting on chewing gum isn’t breaking the law. It’s a loophole. People usually find chewing gum disgusting, but it’s about turning something that has been thrown away into something beautiful.”