It's entirely possible you've walked right past them and not even known what you were missing.
A new series of miniature art installations called tinyfellas is popping up around the District and on local Instagram feeds, featuring tiny figurines cleverly juxtaposed with city landscapes. The project is the brainchild of Becky Nissel, a D.C. artist and copywriter, and Jason Campos, a UX designer at Virginia apparel company CustomInk.
"A few years ago, Jason set up a few figurines around town with the hopes that someone would simply find them and appreciate them," Nissel told DC Inno. "It wasn't until recently, however, that we brought this idea back to the table, now with the angle of a geocaching-type game where we tag locations and encourage people to find these set-ups."
So far, the small installations have popped up in favorite spots of Nissel and Campos around the District, from Cardozo High School's scenic overlook, to A Baked Joint and the 930 Club.
Campos and Nissel don't make the figurines—at least not yet. The tiny object come mostly from Germany, but the duo does come up with each creative placement and crafts the props for each scene. For her favorite project to date—at Cardozo High School—Nissel actually painted from memory the minuscule water color that the figure in the project is portrayed as working on. The two say they may work on creating their own figurines in the future.
Other installations have featured a hazmat crew cleaning up a cigarette butt outside the 930 Club and an outdoorsy camping scene at the NoMa REI store. While tinyfellas has been approached about potential partnerships for locations, for now they have stuck with an organic approach of places they themselves enjoy. However, they say they are excited about the prospect of working with institutions in the community, as long as nothing feels forced.
The small scenes have begun to appear on social media as people come across them, and tinyfellas has seen a spike in engagement as more people become aware of what and where they are.
"It's always exciting to see someone go out of their way to find an installation, photograph it, then tag it," Nissel told DC Inno. "Really, every single time it happens we can't help but smile and get excited that someone out there is just as into this weird thing as we are."
Of course, some people are so enamored with the scenes they decide they might look even better at home. tinyfellas said it's not ideal that people often remove their art, but they've come to expect it. Mostly, Nissel and Campos are excited to contribute to the District's creative community.
"D.C. is a beautiful city that we are so thrilled to call our home," said Nissel. "We just want to make it a littler weirder, quirkier, and a tad more exciting for folks when they least expect it."
