A great new discovery today hiding in plain sight. You may recall back on page 69 I mentioned an article about Jim Bachor who turned potholes in the street into works of art. Link here:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/street-art.221565/post-5497717
I've just discovered here in London we have a similar public servant who has been doing similar things for years. Ben Wilson has become well known for painting on discarded chewing gum in the street. Interestingly he won a court case after being arrested in 2005 and 2009 and charged with criminal damage, which is what most graffiti and street art is viewed as. After the police received letters of complaint following his arrest, charges were eventually dropped as technically he was not painting the pavement itself, but the gum, which is litter, and painting litter to make it aesthetically pleasing is not a crime, for now at least. Legend, love it
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I'm surprised I've not heard of him before, but he came to pubic's attention following an article in the New York Times in 2011.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/world/europe/14muswell.html
I love the last couple of paragraphs of that, hows that for job satisfaction
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It seems he has works all over, and many in his native north London, especially around Muswell Hill. More centrally, straddling the Thames between St Paul's Cathedral on the north side of the river, and Tate Modern on the south side, is the Millenium, or as I still prefer to call it, the wobbly bridge. Back in 2014 Ben painted over 400 mini art works on the bridge. With the volume of tourist traffic that bridge has I'm amazed any remain, and some on the main bridge itself are well worn now, despite being painted in acrylic and lacquered. Some can be seen here:
https://inspiringcity.com/2014/04/1...of-400-mini-artworks-on-the-millenium-bridge/
But my favourites, and the ones in the best condition as these seem to be additions from this year, were on the side ramp leading up to the main bridge on the Tate Modern side. Look on the right hand side by the shadow of the rail on this:
*zoom*
First off we have the two landmarks at either end of the bridge, Tate Modern and St Paul's Cathedral.
Another local landmark is the new building at One Blackfriars, known as The Vase, seen here with pedestrians walking along the South Bank.
And here's one from further afield, Notre Dame. This one is dated April 2019 which is when the famous old building burned down, seen here before the flames arrived.
Excellent, I love those. Another reason to keep the eyes peeled as you never know what you may find.
And I came across an article about another recent project Ben has been doing. He's also been installing random painted tiles at various Underground stations. As a cyclist I never use the tube so am not likely to see any of these any time soon, but if anyone does see any please post them, as these are good too. Scroll down to see more in this link:
https://www.citymetric.com/horizons...-slips-through-cracks-london-underground-4106
