Just a load of old rubbish

Yesterday we had a day out in London, first to catch the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V&A and then we headed over to the Tate Modern to hear the curators talk about the newly opened Anni Albers exhibition. It wasn't raining, so we decided to walk from Blackfriars Station, across the Millennium Bridge, to the Tate.

And quite a nice walk it was too.  I always like crossing the Thames on that bridge, it gives you a marvellous opportunity to stop and look at London - with out being mown down by traffic.

But how many of you ever look down and see where you are actually walking?  I don't usually, but today I did and I'm glad, because I found something really quite amazing, and puzzling.  

I've been over the bridge many times before, but never spotted them; have you?  They're all over the entire span.

So there we both were, staring at the floor and wondering what they were, and more to the point, who had put them there.  Was it some subversive form of advertising, a promotion for a  Tate event or a new form of lovers declaration (remember the locks on bridges?)?

Then I spotted this chap, so I asked him - 'is it you who does these?' And do you know what? - it was! How about that? Apparently he works all over the world making street art, so what were the chances that we'd see him today? Pretty slim I'd say!

Chewing-Gum Man is actually Ben Wilson, an outsider artist.  He creates tiny, and often intricate works of art by painting chewing gum that's stuck to the pavement, or in this case, a bridge.  Ben creates work out of other's discarded rubbish all over the world, from London to Helsinki via the USA and Serbia.

His art hasn't always made him very popular with the authorities, but he's not breaking any law because he's not defacing private property but merely painting rubbish! There's lots about him on t'internet if you Google him, I'm quite late to the party it seems!

And the Anni Albers exhibition?

We never saw it, by the time we finally reach the Tate Modern the gallery had shut. So that treat will have to wait for another day!

Hazel & Terry