Niizeki Hiromi wants the public’s help with her latest project, but “they will first need to come to terms with gum as an art-making material.” Niizeki Hiromi is an internationally renown installation artist based out of New York City. She rose to acclaim by taking “elements that exist in the world that we often take for granted or simply ignore, and repurposing them in new and interesting ways to create a work of art.”

More: Wynwood Art Fair Primer Series

Niizeki has multiple residencies and has exhibited all over the world, but this October, she’s coming to Wynwood Art Fair with a particularly peculiar project. Throughout the fair, she’s going to be handing out chewing gum to her audience, who will then masticate the gum for as long as they see fit. Instead of discarding their chewed-up wads, though, the audience is invited to contribute them to help build a sculpture.

Take it from the artist herself:

"My work also recruits the public as an active participant which was one of the main reasons I felt so strongly about taking part in the Wynwood Art fair and working with such a large audience united in the creative process."

"I will incorporate simple chewing gum (in a broad spectrum of colors) as my core art medium. The public will be invited to join me in selecting a color + flavored gum of their choice...then enjoy the sensation of chewing the gum and essentially prime it for its intended purpose of then forming it into a decorative element of a large wall sculpture made of plexiglass which can be viewed from both sides."

"The work will continue to evolve and develop over the course of three days, in its multilayers of color and form and texture, perhaps resembling a stained glass window of some kind of cathedral of whimsy."

Sounds reasonable enough. Hopefully no one winds up with lockjaw after all that masticating.