Slinkachu sees "world going to the dogs" in Global Model Village at London's Andipa Gallery

Exhibition: Slinkachu – Global Model Village, Andipa Gallery, London, until October 28 2012

Tiny people plant rice against the backdrop of rushing Beijing, nodding to the intensive production process which keeps citizens fed. Pupils negotiate a barbed wire fence in Cape Town, the optimistic feel of the blue sky seeming painfully incongruous given that the area, District Six, witnessed the expulsion of 60,000 residents during the apartheid.

Remodelled train set characters have rarely been used to such acerbic effects as they are under the guidance of Slinkachu.

“The world is going to the dogs,” cheerfully asserts the installation artist who channels the “common denominators” of mankind – hope, tragedy, loneliness and humour among them – into tiny figures within towering settings.

“You read about it in the papers every day. The good old days are long gone and the only thing to look forward to is a steady decline, leading to the inevitable apocalypse.

“But there are more immediate concerns for us, because the train is late and it’s already 8.45. The baby was awake all night and the kids are bunking off school. Letters from the bank are stacking up, unopened.

“The view from the office window is another office window, and one side of the bed is always empty. And we are all waiting for those days when the sun breaks through the clouds and, for once, the city looks not so bad after all.”

Slinkachu’s common touch has garnered mass popularity: in 2010, a show at Belsay, in Northumberland, where the likes of Ron Mueck and Mat Collishaw were part of a group show examining the rituals of day trips, drew a record-breaking 55,000 visitors.

Little People in the City, a tome of his works published in 2009, became one of the best-selling art books in the UK that year, three years after he began repainting his inch-high heroes.

And despite his first solo museum exhibition, in Germany, only arriving last year, this exhibition has plenty to showcase, timed to coincide with the launch of his third book, Global Model Village.

“It is both a street art installation project and a photography project,” he reflects.

“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.”

• Andipa Gallery, Walton Street, London. Open 9.30am-6pm (11am-6pm Saturday, closed Sunday). Admission free.

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