ARTIST'S WEBSITE- http://slinkachu.com/
My 'Little People Project' started in 2006. It involves the remodelling and painting of miniature model train set characters, which I then place and leave on the street. It is both a street art installation project and a photography project. The street-based side of my work plays with the notion of surprise and I aim to encourage city-dwellers to be more aware of their surroundings. The scenes I set up, more evident through the photography, and the titles I give these scenes aim to reflect the loneliness and melancholy of living in a big city, almost being lost and overwhelmed. But underneath this, there is always some humour. I want people to be able to empathise with the tiny people in my works.
The artist first started this project as a way to amuse his friends and others soon became interested in it. As for where he came up with this idea, he told Fused Magazine: “I was thinking about how little we look around ourselves in day-to-day life. I grew up in the country and loved playing outside when I was a kid, digging things up and finding bugs. There isn’t much chance to do that in the city. And as an adult you lose that sense of wonder about what is around you. I wanted to introduce a bit of mystery and encourage people to look around themselves a bit more. And of course the notion of being small in a big city is quite emotive - everyone who lives in the city feels lost and lonely from time to time.”