W3 bus approaching Alexandra Garden Centre, by Ben Wilson

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.” (Interview with the artist, 2021)

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