Ben Wild

Ben Wild was born in 1966 and spent his childhood in the Somerset countryside where his parents wrote and illustrated children’s books. He spent a lot of time staring at a print of Breughel’s Children’s Games on his bedroom wall and also the cover of Sgt Peppers, both of which seem to have helped steer him to produce his collages.  

He has been fortunate enough to have enjoyed a career repairing historic stone buildings, working on churches, castles and monuments all over Britain, and as a result, developed an interest in art, architecture and history.

From moth-eaten books, magazines and ephemera Ben likes to rescue forgotten snippets from their slumbers and present them anew in a world of strange. Chaos and a sense of the absurd are essential ingredients. He cleans up joins and blemishes on a scanned image with photographic software before producing the resultant high-quality giclée print.

The process of collage is one of delightful unpredictability. The best-laid plans will often go off on a wild tangent as dictated by the placing of material. It is a form of play that Ben feels strongly can benefit the mental wellbeing of us all.