Slinkachu’s Little People and Inner City Snails
by Jo Richards
Small is beautiful. Following on from Julian’s theme of little ideas that can be hugely impactful, one of my favourite street artists, the anonymous Slinkachu, fits neatly into this category.
His on-going microscopic street art project, ‘Little People in the City’, is utterly charming in terms of minimal representation of the human condition. Basically, he custom-designs miniature models from train sets and makes them over with modelling clay hoods etc, plus a few props. After putting them in their own real life scenario, interacting with subjects from Big Ben to bird poo, he then leaves his painted creations to fend for themselves in big bad cities. Poor little people. But not before documenting snapshot evidence of their short-lived existence; i.e. until the street-sweeper swish them away. There’s loads of photos on his website and in book, which is delightful. In fact, it was the most interesting artifact I found in the St Ives Tate Gallery at first visit.
As you’d imagine, you’re as likely to see a Slinkachu as you are to see Banksy on The One Show. And that’s the beauty of it. His work is barely visible to the naked eye of unobservant cleaners, commuters and city sight-seekers. Another reason to keep your eyes peeled when you’re out and about in London, Manchester, Barcelona or Amsterdam.
In his latest project, he takes small to an equally low but slower level with ‘Inner City Snail”. Using non-toxic paints and maybe a magnifying glass, he turns their gastropodic homes into little works of art. Complete with fixed penalty notices for illegal parking, grafitti tags and petite human passengers.
Snail rights activists can rest assured that “no snails were harmed in the making of this street art” during shell pimping. And if you’re interested in buying a book on this subject, take a look at one of our reviews when a Slinkachu book featured as our ‘book in reception’.
Tags: Banksy, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing Agency, Inner City Snail, Little people in the city, Manchester Advertising Agency, Manchester Design Agency, Marketing Agency, Miniature Art, Online Marketing Agency, PPC Agency, SEO Company, Slinkachu, St Ives Tate Gallery, The One Show
