The Gum Wall Expands

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

If you visited the gum wall at the Market Theater in Post Alley in the last year, you would notice that it has grown both thicker and expanded to include the wall past the theater entrance. This public work needs a curator, and I predict someone will publish a book of photos about the wall as it morphs over time, complete with lecture and book signing at Elliott Bay Books. ;^) The idea of the gum wall is even moving to other places. . .I've seen photos of something similar at Pier 39 in San Francisco. There are probably other locations. Lets hear about them. Is the gum wall phenom global yet? Please post what you know here in the comments section. Does your city have one?

This gum wall began with theater patrons waiting outside, placing a blob of chewing gum on the wall and sticking a penny or other coin in it. The coins would be picked off by other people, and the wall was cleaned of gum two or three times before the powers that be gave up and the wall became an interactive work of art. Now people chew wads of gum and shape letters and figures from it, as well as adding the conventional blobs. People seek out bright colored gums to chew and add. The older gum slowly crusts and cracks. I wonder how much DNA is represented on that wall? The first wall people started doing this on (to the left in this photo) has become so thick and crowded that people now regularly place blobs in the entryway and around the box office window and down the brick wall past the theater entryway. For more photos and close detail of how the work looks this week, see my More Seattle Stuff page.

No Gum This Side

Photo & Text © 2012 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

Since about 1994 when patrons of the Market Theater started adhering coins to the east wall of Post Alley with wads of gum, the gum wall has remained solely along the theater's brick walls. This year the sticky tide has flowed to the west side of the alleyway (and this sign appeared). It would seem there is a rebellion underway. What I find unfortunate is that gum stickers knowingly or unknowingly have defaced the south portion of the free wall where street artists regularly post posters, stickers and large paintings. I wonder how the artists feel about the encroachment, if they mind or not. They certainly can't post over the large gum blobs like they have previous layers of flat street art. You can see (bottom right photo) that the layers of gum on the theater side have grown very thick compared to almost six years ago in this photo I showed you in January 2007, so a clear wall must seem more inviting.


 

A Lovely Pastoral Scene @ the Gum Wall

Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.

I've shown you many gum wall shots over the years. The ever evolving participatory art installation that the Market Theater Gum Wall in Post Alley has become is currently sporting these monumental snow-capped mountains beneath a brilliant sunny sky. A happy human takes a sroll along a river that turns and cascades into a waterfall. There is a striking red heart outlined in black above, while below to the left the declaration, "No one's gonna love you more than I do" is spelled out in stretchy gum letters. Anyone care to guess how much time it took to chew all the gum used in this pastoral mural, and how many individuals participated. I'm thinking if it was just one or two people that they were standing there the better part of a day to create this. I shot this late at night.

Update 8/6/10: Okay, don't blame me for not giving. . .ah. . . a "closer" inspection or, (ew!) touching it to find out, but looking at this again now I'm thinking someone cheated and used plastic modeling clay-- you know, the bright kid's clay that smells of petroleum and never dries. At least I don't THINK anyone would spend the money for Fimo or Sculpty for such a space. The more I think about someone chewing that much gum and the specific colors used, the more I'm thinking someone "cheated." Ah, evolving art! We need a curator to inform us what subtle and not so subtle changes this space undergoes :-). Or maybe a 365 Gum Wall Project or a web cam to know what really goes on.  -K.

The Couple

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Babooshka mentioned wanting to see further down yesterday's passage in Post Alley, and this is just out from under the passage (across from the figure of the woman in yesterday's shot). This was taken on a different day and I was tucked in across the alley from the Alibi Room's sign. The couple emerged from the darkened doorway just as I was shooting a bit around the corner of the gum wall, he with rose in hand, she moving in a hurry toward the Market. I guess they are used to people with camera's ogling the gum wall across the alley. Around that sticky color splotched corner is the Market Theater and the main gum wall's ever-changing spontaneous participatory "exhibit" which I showed you here and here before.

Postcard: SLO's Original Bubble Gum Alley

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, "pinning" on visual collections websites or republishing in any media.

Many Seattle Daily Photo visitors have mentioned how unusual and gross they find the Market Street Theater Gum Wall started in Post Alley in the 1990's to be. This, however, is the granddaddy of all gum walls. It was started in the 1950s in San Luis Obispo, California. The small central coast college and mission town has a narrow alley off Higuerra Street that attracted a gum collection of amazing thickness and age (I learned it has been cleaned off twice at the request of the camber of commerce and this latest collection is only from the early 90s on). Of course we just had to find it. The under layers are. . .ah, shall we say rather black and grody. Several children came through as we watched and matter of factly plopped wads of gum low on the wall, as if it were daily habit. Ew factor. . .pretty big :-). Instead of pennies, people stick their business cards and gum wrappers to the gum. Lots of spontaneous, ah, art, I think.

Market Theater Gum Wall

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republication.

This is the box office window and entrance to the Market Theater. You are not going to believe the "ew" factor of this tradition that has become a living art installation sought out by photographers the city over. The Market Theater in Post Alley at Pike Place Public Market has given up cleaning the gum it's patrons began sticking to the alley's brick wall while they were waiting in line. It's a habit that has stuck. Originally coins were pressed into the colorful gum blobs. Some people still affix a penny, but those quickly disappear. After two complete removals and cleanings, they realized the futility of trying to keep the gum off. It is now become a de facto public art installation, and a participatory one that grows daily. For a view of the full wall, click here and for a another detail click here for shots on my More Seattle Stuff page.

Icky Sticky Box Office

Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.

Gumcicles drip from the curved brick window frame of the Market Theater's box office in Post Alley. The ever expanding Market Theater Gum Wall long ago turned the corner and encroached into the theater entryway. Now the DNA samples are multi-layers thick all around the window. No matter, as the note asks patrons to come into the lobby to get their Improve tickets. Quick, what improvisation would you devise for the kids song "Icky Sticky Bubble Gum"? :-) Here are previous photos starting in 2006 so you can see the growing accumulation of colorful blobs in this tucked away area.

December 2006


October 2007


July 2009

Thick-O-Licious

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

I noticed last month that some of my posts from previous years were all of a sudden receiving many visits each day. Folks were landing on them after a web search for the term "gum wall." Turns out that Trip Advisor published a list in June of the top five germy places on the planet to visit. Seattle's little sticky spot is now globally famous as second only to the Blarney Stone in the "ew!" factor of tourist attractions. I started photographing the Market Theater gum wall in Post Alley in 2006 and have shared several views of it here and on More Seattle Stuff and my Flickr page over the years. I've given updates like this one before, but since interest is so keen right now, I thought it was a good time to give you an update and popped down Post Alley Sunday. I wasn't prepared for the amazing increase in the number of people wandering down the alley looking for it and the pretty noticeable thickening of the layers since my last visit in May. In the 20 minutes I was in the area I counted over 60 people go by and a number of disgruntled drivers who had to wait for them to pass like so many sheep on a country road. It used to be mainly patrons of the Alibi Room and Market Theater, workers from Pike Place Public Market, people who lived nearby, interested photographers, and the occasional tourist telling their kids not to touch it. I'm thinking the increased notoriety is not the best thing that could have happened. We'll see. . . This guy was making a video. Perhaps San Luis Obispo's "Bubble Gum Alley" should have made the list instead, since it's much larger and has been notorious since the 1960's, long before the little trend started here. A few more current views of this ever changing de facto interactive public art work are in a clickable mosaic at More Seattle Stuff.

A Rivulet Runs Through It

Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.

A couple guys were chatting outside the Alibi Room when I took this twilight shot in Post Alley. All the usual suspects are present: The Market Theater gum wall, the theater's neon sign, the Post Alley sign in the distance, the alleyway lamps and the light patterns they form, the street artists stickers and posters on the right hand wall, the Alibi Room's neon sign, that patch of blue hour light, and running through it all, a trickle of water through the cobblestones

Postcard: Gum Art Detail

Photo & Text © 2011 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved. No use, reproduction, alteration, "pinning" on visual collections websites or republishing in any media.

A little follow up post on yesterday's visit to San Luis Obispo's Bubble Gum Alley. A newly painted wall end received some artistic attention from the gum faries :-).

Not Who I Usually Come Upon Here

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

At the top of Post Alley where the gum wall ends and the brick pavers curve around and out toward Pike Place there is a motorcycle / scooter parking area near the base of a stairway. There is a restroom nearby. Sometimes people who live in apartments along the alley are coming and going, sometimes workers from the Market are taking a smoke break, sometimes there are maintenance folks or street characters or tourists walking. This man in business attire was simply standing there attending to something on his blackberry. My Flickr friend Dirk in Germany commented on this shot, "Bet this guy is waiting for a cab, right?" Well, I don't know. It didn't look like he'd ridden in on one of the scooters. He was there the ten minutes or so that I was taking shots in Post Alley.

Sylvester

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved including reproduction or republishing.

Since so many folks registered the "ew" facttor about the gum wall featured yesterday, I thought I'd show you another uniquely Seattle sight that might seem distasteful. "Sylvester" is a supposedly naturally mummified murder victim found in the Arizona desert in the late 1800s (click on the link to learn the more likely scenario). No matter his origin, he has most certainly resided at Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Seattle's waterfront for many, many decades. Chances are if you've visited Seattle you've seen him. . .right next to the mummified woman's remains, two headed sheep, and the shrunken heads. The curio shop definitely lives up to its name and was opened in the late 1800s. It has traded in curios, legal, illegal, real, fake, amazing and for the most part as distasteful as a side show. SylvesterYe+Olde+Curiosity+Shop Seattle mummy waterfront

Theme Day: Paths & Passages

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

The Alibi Room and the Market Theater gum wall are just beyond this passage in Post Alley, Pike Place Market. Post Alley runs through and below the historic 101 year old sanitary public market and got its name from the hitching posts, now gone, where vendors would secure their horses when bringing goods to market back in the day. One of my fellow Seattle Flickrites, Mary Wit, upon seeing this photo wrote, "This is my favorite spot on earth...the bellybutton of our fair city. The cobblestones were once ballast for ships returning from trips to faraway lands. Listen carefully and you can hear stories whispered on the wind that blows through the Alley."

City Daily Photo Bloggers from all over the globe are featuring other famous and not so famous paths and passages to peer down and enjoy in their cities. Please visit as many as you can, and be sure to leave us a comment about what you find. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Ew in Blue

Photo & Text © 2013 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved.

This Smurf-like lad wearing the super cool shades was sticking it to the Market Theater Gum Wall in Post Alley.

Late Night Post Alley Inspection

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Late last Sunday night a couple of guys were carefully checking out the current state of the Market Theater Gum Wall in Post Alley. I had taken a couple of distance photos of them from the top of the alley, and then I slipped in a doorway and attempted to frame them looking across the alley through the arch. Then this other guy walked into the frame and made it all interesting. I got so excited I lost my steady. The other shots I got of just the two guys came out pretty sharply focused for a night time hand held shot, but I liked this one, warts and all. Other shots at More Seattle Stuff. Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Father & Daughter in Post Alley

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Walking past Cafe Campagne, a father and daughter stroll through Post Alley toward Pine Street. Visitors remark that this shop- and restaurant-lined passage reminds them more of Europe than the US. Just a short distance away in lower Post Alley, the Market Theater area with its gum wall removes all illusions of being anywhere near Paris!