NICK BLINKO

STOPPING TO LOOK

An extract from a recent interview gives an insight into the life and work of London-based artist Ben Wilson, aka ‘The Chewing Gum Man’

DAVID CLEGG

Wilson in his home studio with his tile paintings in 2021 all photos: Thierry Bal, unless otherwise stated

DC: How did you start making art?

BW: Both my father and mother were artists, so it’s in my blood. They encouraged me and my brothers and sisters to make art and take risks. I’d made huge clay pots at home since I was three. I'd used blocks of clay up to my waist. I loved the excitement of the activity – the life of it – pull it apart, put that bit on, see what happened. Then I got to school and they gave us a little bit of clay and said, “This is how you make a coil pot.” From that day at school, I was at odds with the education system.

Why did you decide to go to art school?

It seemed a nice thing to do, and it was just up the road [in Barnet, North London]. I started a foundation course, but soon started making art next door in the grounds of an old theological college. Using materials I could find in the woods, I built an art environment. A huge wooden chair, a tower, a giant male figure, and a table about ten feet high, with a walkway connecting the various parts. No-one knew I was doing it – I was trying to let the work evolve out of the place. The head caretaker found me one weekend and there was mayhem. Eventually, the college decided enough was enough. Part of the reason my work survived there for so long was that it was hidden, though people discovered it and enjoyed it, children played on it. Over time, some people vandalised and burned it, though

Wilson with one of his huge wooden sculptures in Muswell Hill, London, in 2021, photo: David Clegg

some of the work lasted for years. I planted some new trees and it became a natural environment once more.

Is there a philosophy behind your art making? I made a considered choice to work outside the system. I had friends who were into punk rock and I understood that – the anarchy movement, punk fanzines. That was a big movement, and I identified with it. Direct action is part of that, and I just wanted to make art. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of creating art as a product – although, of course, that can create financial problems. I wanted to make art that had a social function. Something for and about people that was accessible and understandable without lots of heavy theory. I liked that people discover the work, but it wasn’t up to me to say what they should make out of it. The next space I worked in was Hadley Wood in Barnet. Hadley Wood is ‘common ground’ so I didn’t have to get permission to work there. I could make sculptures and environments in the wood that people could just come across.

How important is it for you to work with the materials that you find on the site?

For me, it's about respecting a place. If you spend enough time in a place, it starts to tell you what to do. The chewing gum is already part of the environment, in the sense that I haven’t brought it in. When I started,

Who is the Desperate Heart of Daniel Johnston?, 1994

all images: ink and marker on paper, 8.5 x 11 in. / 21.5 x 28 cm, courtesy: The Daniel Johnston Trust, unless otherwise stated

Johnston, Dallas, 1998, photo: Ted Degener

US artist Daniel Johnston achieved cult status with his deeply personal and honest drawings and music

PAUL LASTER

Singer-songwriter and self-taught visual artist Daniel Johnston (1961–2019) was a cult figure both in the alternative music scene and the contemporary art world. He had a big, international following of admirers, some of them famous. An unlikely celebrity, Johnston produced art and music until his untimely death at the age of 58. He created prolifically, compulsively – drawings, album covers, collages, songs – pulling inspiration from all areas of popular culture, from comics to adverts, as well as from his own life experiences and related feelings.

Born in Sacramento, California, Johnston grew up in New Cumberland, West Virginia, the youngest of five siblings. He recalled first making drawings in a cartoonish style when he was three years old, and then composing music from around the age of nine. As an adult, after experimenting with psychedelic drugs, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was then institutionalised intermittently for extended periods of time.

In the documentary film My Dinner with Daniel (1988), Johnston says that he wasn’t really passionately into music until high school, when he discovered The Beatles and decided he wanted to be one. He identified with the character Sergeant Pepper because he led the Lonely Hearts Club Band. In a later interview, Johnston reflected on the onset of his mental illness, “When it happened in Junior High, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was a loner. I turned to art. I just went to the library and looked at books and listened to a ton of records. I just had to be alone, as if I was dead.” His 1978 drawing Sgt Pepper presents a dismembered head with a sardonic smile.

After dropping out of college, Johnston went to live with his brother Dick in Houston and got a job at Astroworld, a local amusement park. He would stay up all night writing songs in the garage, which drove Dick nuts. He wanted to send Johnston home to their parents, but his sister took him in – until he drove her nuts too. Before she could ship him home, he ran away, bought a moped and got a job at a concession stand selling corn dogs in a travelling carnival show. His family had no idea where he was. Johnston went on to draw Speeding Motorcycle (1984) in which a character speeds away from death – represented by two skulls – while pleading, “Get away from my life!”.

The artist-musician first acquired a fan base in Austin, Texas, in the 1980s by handing out cassette tapes of his simple, heartfelt songs while working at McDonalds, and by performing at local indie music venues. His fame grew in 1985 when he appeared on MTV’s The Cutting Edge – a music programme featuring lesser-known acts – and considerably more when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain famously wore a t-shirt featuring Johnston’s drawing of a big-eyed frog, at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. In 1985, two of his songs were included on the soundtrack of Larry Clark’s film Kids.

The artist’s creative beginnings, rise to fame and ongoing struggles with mental illness were the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston which showed that music and art were the only true ways for him to express himself. While many of his songs were sad remembrances of unrequited love, his drawings usually revealed who he wanted to be or how he thought he was being treated. His obsessively produced, streamof-conscious pen and marker works were regularly exhibited, including in a group show at Dinter Fine Art in New York in 2005, solo shows at the Clementine Gallery

Speeding Motorcycle, 1984 I Dream of Good Vs Evil, 1990, ink on paper Eternal Punishment!, 1985, ink on paper

and the Whitney Biennial in New York both in 2006, and at the 2008 Liverpool Biennial in the UK.

In 2021, the exhibition “Daniel Johnston: Psychedelic Drawings” was one of the main attractions at the New York Outsider Art Fair (OAF). Curated by Gary Panter –himself a respected artist and cartoonist – it was held at the Electric Lady Studios, the legendary sound recording studio used by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, among others. Andrew Edlin, New York gallerist and Outsider Art Fair-owner, describes what caught his attention in Johnston’s work:

“What I found most remarkable ... was that he was really unaffected – there was no pose – and I think that struck people as so refreshing. That is one of the most appealing things about outsider art. People see that it’s not pretentious; it’s not self-conscious.”

Several of Johnston’s drawings in “Daniel Johnston: Psychedelic Drawings” feature Captain America, including the 1990 piece I Dream Of Good Vs Evil. In the 2003 short film, Daniel Johnston, a Superhero in Paris, Johnston says:

“Captain America is my favourite superhero that I draw. I keep trying to draw Captain America. ... I’d like to be professional enough someday to be really great at drawing Captain America and draw for Marvel Comics. That’s my dream, but I know that I’m an amateur. I sell those drawings, though, and it’s unbelievable how much cash I can get. My music is zilch. I make no money from my songs, but I can make a drawing and it sells.”

Lee Foster, manager partner of Electric Lady Studios and collector of Johnston’s work, says, “One thing that Daniel did very well, I think a lot of us as adults would lose, is that he could say ‘this is where it hurts’, and he wasn’t afraid of it. He wouldn’t avoid it or deflect. ... And that honesty comes through in everything he does. It’s very endearing. It’s very charming. It’s just very honest.”

Much of Johnston’s hurt may have stemmed from the trauma and negativity he experienced when he was becoming an adult and only wanted to make music and draw comics, as well as later on at the hands of doctors and family members who kept him on medication and tried to control him and his obsessions. The drawing Hulk Will Smash (2000) depicts another of Johnston’s favourite superheroes, and in a 2007 documentary for the Domino Festival in Brussels, he says, “I would like to be the Incredible Hulk because no one could win against me and I’d smash them all and I think it would be a lot of fun.” In the drawing, Hulk says, “Hulk will smash! Hulk will smash!” And a man responds, “Where are you going to get food, Hulk?” “Where you going to get love?” says a woman. “You’ll never escape,” says an older man. “Who cares,” replies a wild-eyed rabbit.

His 1980s drawing My Nightmares features what Johnston called the ‘evil eye’ and ‘flying eye’, which he started drawing in high school. In The Devil and Daniel Johnston, he says, “The evil eye sees everything that’s there, seeing even more than what’s there. It sees evil even when it’s not there.” Perhaps, brought up in a religious family, he felt – or was told – that the devil was responsible for a lot of his behaviour, that in reality was provoked by his mental illness. In the drawing, the evil eye says, “Hello Daniel. You’re nervous, aren’t you? Aren’t you?” And, lying in bed, he thinks, “They would kill me if I didn’t wake up in time.”

Ducks, like the one in Strange But True (1997) are also a reoccurring theme in Johnston’s work. He referred to the birds as members of an army in a battle against Satan. Like Henry Darger, he was obsessed with the struggle between good and evil. While Darger had the Vivian Girls to fight that battle, Johnston had his ducks. In his 1998 drawing Ha, Ha, Ha, three of them, wearing superhero uniforms, stand together fearlessly laughing in the face of evil. Another frequent motif for the artist was ghosts, in particular Casper, the Friendly Ghost. In several drawings – including his 1985

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Hulk Will Smash, 2000