POP CULTURE -- Turning already-chewed gum into art

The Associated Press

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

by Michael Felberbaum

POP CULTURE -- Turning already-chewed gum into art

Jamie Marraccini's humble home smells like bubble gum. And it isn't just because he's chewing a piece.

The place is filled with original "paintings" and sculptures made from a substance commonly known as "ABC gum" -- as in already been chewed.

And now Marraccini is helping others find a new use for what most people chew for a while and toss in the garbage -- or, let's be honest, stick to something that they're not supposed to.

"I always felt it was a waste of gum," he said. "But I was happier they'd do that than throw it away because at least then it lived on."

And he's not kidding -- besides the countless pieces of gum art, the 36-year-old father of two has amassed a collection of more than 5,000 pieces of chewed gum, some more than 10 years old. And he's made his own share of raw-material contributions to his collection, thanks to his personal love for gum and an aversion to throwing things away.

His teachers also unknowingly played a role in developing his gum aesthetic -- when he was a kid, Marraccini was forced to smear his gum inside his locker to keep from getting in trouble for chewing it in class.

Over time, his collection evolved from locker wads to the more elaborate pieces that grace his living room walls -- some of them about 2 feet wide. The art, made entirely of gum, ranges in subject matter from outer-space scenes and random faces to sculptures of eggs partying in their carton. In one unfinished piece, eggs sit around a campfire cooking bacon.

And all this art takes, well, a lot of gum. So Marraccini is almost always chewing two or three pieces at a time.

He also enlists friends and family to keep the collection growing by handing out packages of gum, a storage container and instructions: Chew gum for 20 to 30 minutes and put in case. He then collects the masticated wads for use in his art. (Even old, hardened pieces can be used -- a little warm water brings them back to life.)

With an eye toward his continued artistic development, Marraccini also tests new kinds of gum by chewing it, storing it and seeing how the color looks and lasts. (He keeps the rejects too -- it's all part of his collection.)

Marraccini also has a real job, at a technology startup. But that "leaves plenty of time for chewing gum," and he's also found time for a side project encouraging others to try out his brand of art.

Marraccini's $15 Chew By Numbers kit provides chewers with an opportunity to make art from packs of gum by matching the labeled pieces to a cardboard sheet with numbers on it. In the end, the gum gets transformed into, say, an apple with lips, a pile of gum balls or a planted pot with lips.

Marraccini realizes some find this whole idea disgusting. But he offers a reminder that there are benefits to chewing gum -- it helps with motor skills, concentration and creativity, and it can even speed up metabolism.

Chew on that.

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CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

Marraccini's art: www.GumArt.com

The Chew By Numbers kit: www.ChewByNumbers.com

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5 Tulips

Hands on Sticks

The Detective

Believe It or Not!

Segment008 from Ripley's Believe It or Not! on Vimeo.

Chiclets Bubble Gum Sculpture (Pop Art?)- Stop Motion Animation

Uploaded to YouTube by kazanjianm on Nov 4, 2009
 

Really random??? YES! I was curious if I could turn chicklets gum from a stop motion object into a sculptural object. My last video was a tutorial on traditional painting....This one was as far from traditional painting as you could get. But I learned a lot doing it. For instance, you can layer gum like you layer paint and interestingly enough, gum gives an artist a medium that 1.) dries and solidifies 2.) can be used translucently or applied opaque (different thicknesses) 3.) can be layered 4.) GIVES ME A WICKED SUGAR RUSH!

Believe it or not, I want to experiment more with this medium. If you think about it, chewing gum's artistic possibilities lie somewhere between painting and sculpture. I had fun.....Now I have to burn the 1200 calories that I ingested!!!!! LOL -Merrill Kazanjian

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Artist creates life-size sculptures using chewed bubblegum

By Lucy Cockcroft

1:25PM GMT 15 Jan 2009

Maurizio Savini's intricate works are created using thousands of pieces of the bright pink gum, and have sold for as much as £40,000 ($ 53,439.98) each.

They include a life-size buffalo, a grizzly bear and suited businessmen suspended in gymnastic poses.

Savini, 39, has been using the unusual material, known in his native Italy as 'American Gum' after it arrived during World War II, for the past 10 years.

His sticky sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, including London, Edinburgh, Rome and Berlin, where they have sold for as much.

The artist, based in Rome, said: "The reason I like to use chewing gum is because it seemed to me an amazingly versatile material compared to those used by the traditional arts such as painting.

"Despite its history of it belonging to popular culture, chewing gum does not have a statute of its own within institutional art.

"I believe that in my work on this material is redeemed and acquires a capacity and it has an expressive dignity of its own.

"I work the chewing gum when it is warm and manipulate it with a knife just like some traditional material like clay.

"The most important step is the fixing of the sculptures with formaldehyde and antibiotic."

Art critic Mario Codognato, from Pastificio Cerere gallery, Italy, said Savini's gum sculptures embodied the essence of youth.

He wrote "Maurizio's work reminds of the sensual act of chewing, the voluptuous warmth of rebelling saliva, the artificial and secretly aseptic fragrance which spreads from the mouth as a promise and missed kiss.

"Applying all this to the power and energy of the sculpture and its history causes a short circuit having the capacity of turning the lucid into stately and vice versa."

'Hanging man',  bubblegum sculpture by Maurizio Savini

'buffalo',  bubblegum sculpture by Maurizio Savini

Bubblegum Art

Jason Kronenwald

gumblondes.com

Jason Kronenwald, a graduate of Queens University with a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts, is an emerging artists based in Toronto, where he produces his Gum Blonde Chewing Gum Portraits. Jason smooths chewed gum over plywood, creating realistic skin tones and hair colour, composing his palette from the multitude of different flavours and colors chewed together.

The appeal of his portraits stretch across a wide audience, from some of Canada's top collectors, including TD Waterhouse, to popular culture publications such as this years Ripley's Believe it or Not.