Maybe social media isolating us; or maybe it's just another barely effective way we try to resist the atomism and anomie endemic to the modern world. I'm not sure what Slinkachu would think. The the U.K. street artist who previously brought you the Inner City Snail Project, Slinkachu is outwardly no more invested in exploring the causes behind the modern condition than he is in advancing "solutions" to it. What he is interested in is expressing the solitary, uncertain, anxious side of contemporary life -- in a way that lets us share in some collective self-deprecating irony about it.

For the Little People Project, something he's been up to since 2006, Slinkachu remodels and paints miniature model-train-set figures, leaving them on the streets of cities around the world and photographing them. "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," he says. "The scenes I set up ... 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."

Here are some shots, collected in the new book, Global Model Village ...


The Food Chain

Gui Jie (Ghost Street), Beijing, China, 2011

---

The Sights

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 2010

---

All-Star Nobody

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, 2011

---

Early Mid-Life Crisis


Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, 2011

---

Damn Kids


Rathaus area, Stuttgart, Germany, 2011

---

Springtime in Palestine


West Bank separation wall, Bethlehem, Palestinian territories, 2012

---

Hanging On


Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 2011

---

All Alone


VDNKh area, Moscow, Russia, 2012

---

Vendetta


Bridgetown, Barbados, 2011

---

Branded


Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, France, 2012

Slingkachu's exhibit at the Broome Street Gallery in New York runs through this week.

---

Images: Slinkachu