Day: October 24, 2016

“This work is my acknowledgement of greed for material things of human kind which is so powerful that it is going to cost us our own existence,” Igor Ballyhoo states of his new installation, Tumor, now open at MetaLES. “This is not [an] effort to fight it, it is not made in least hope to change anything, it is just a recording of my observation of human society at this point.”

Across a flat, misted plain – reached via teleport of the region’s skyborne landing point – strange structures rise, strange cubic conifers, denuded of branches and leaves. Underfoot, square stepping-stones of brown earth vie with an oily, sludge-like morass pulsating around them, The glowing mist hovers above this, with closer examination revealing it to be sheets of a digital grid pattern which blurs this strange, almost alien landscape into a soft focus.

But none of this holds the attention for long. Across the region a massive steel pylon raises multiple arms splitting and branching over and again as they reach into the sky. It stands as the embodiment of a the great metal pylons which march across many countries of the world, feeding our insatiable need for energy. Even the metal arms, rising into pincer-like pairs which seem to pluck and pull at the ball of the Sun overhead, offer a further metaphor for our energy greed.

More of these grasping metal arms and fingers can be seen overhead, stretching out from the sides of huge structures rising into the sky. Their blocky forms shimmering in the sunlight and defying the eye to pick out details, they rise one atop the last like great drilling platforms, oblivious of the strange, denuded and oozing landscape below, topped by a strange gigantic cube of cubes.

As a statement and as an art installation, Tumor is a powerfully visual piece, underlined by its dedication to  Georgina Hope “Gina” Rinehart, climate change sceptic and CEO of Hancock Prospecting, a company which could be said to have questionable concerns over the environmental impact of its projects. It will remain open until the end of November. At the time of writing, it overlaps lanjran Choche’s photographic exhibition, 5Y Smoking, which can also be reached via teleport from the landing point.

SLurl Details

Tumor (MetaLES, rated Moderate)