'Bowes & Bounds Connected': "Ben Wilson - the Chewing Gum Artist of Muswell Hill"

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"Anyone who has spent time around Muswell Hill will have come across Ben Wilson, a local character who can often be seen flat on the floor surrounded by his paints and brushes creating minature masterpieces by painting on the surface of discarded chewing gum on the pavements.

"Much has been written about his very particular form of artistic expression - and this week Ben has been profiled in a major article in the New York Times, including a lovely story about him marking the closure of Muswell Hill's Woolworths store by including every employee’s name onto a piece of chewing gum outside the shopfront."

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From the New York Times article: "His current project was inspired by a variety of concerns: the scourge of chewing gum on city sidewalks, people’s carelessness about the environment, and how advertisements, not art, rule the urban landscape."