little people left in the world to fend for themselves

Slinkachu, Crappy Christmas, Old Street Area in London, 2008.

British artist Slinkachu has been placing miniature train set figurines in public places since 2006, witty street installations that evolved instantly into an ongoing photography project. The thirty year old artist finds his characters from model shops, paints them and sometimes alters them with modeling clay before placing them in action with found objects and props from eBay. He had solo exhibitions at the Cosh Gallery in London last summer and most recently at the Andipa Gallery in a show called Whatever Happened to the Men of Tomorrow? that was accompanied by life-size blow ups of his work on billboards around London. The installations find Slinkachu’s little people in ironic, tragic and funny situations that emphasize their tiny size and make them seem more pathetic and helpless. As the artist intended, they embody the loneliness and disillusionment that characterize city life. An old woman walks home, arms crossed to keep warm, dwarfed by a giant bag of potato chips next to her; a lady of the night propositions a miniature super hero from the entrance to her house of ill repute--the mouth of a drainage pipe.


Slinkachu, The Lair, Whatever Happened to the Men of Tomorrow? 2009.

Slinkachu’s gallery shows presented magnified photographs of the many scenes he has set up on the streets of London and left for passers-by to ponder or overlook, as well as new little sculptures on the floor and in corners of the gallery. He also published a book of his photographed street installations called Little People in the City this June.


Slinkachu, Pigeon Carnage, Ground Zero Solo Show, 2008.



http://little-people.blogspot.com/
http://slinkachu.com/