LEA6 May Full Sim Cyber Orthodox by Ballyhoo, review by Victoria Lenoirre

This month of May LEA6 hosts Cyber Orthodox by Igor Ballyhoo. Come on over to see it!


You will find a few docks along with lots of water. The whole scene is situated within 4 dark walls or fencing. Igor went with a more simple look. It's a major change from the terrains of past LEA sims.

The walls encased his entire build and it set a somber, grave mood. All around you see black. Interspersed are dots of color like the apple and the intricate clock.

In Igor's words:

"In whole university of sensations, thoughts, opinions and other kinds of influences created by human since beginning I am more impressed by the energy they spend to convince others that their way is only right one then by ideas that they try to spread. ORTHOS ("right", "true", "straight") + DOXA ("opinion" or "belief") is always reminding me of question which clock is most accurate in universe? Closest to answer of that would be “the one that doesn't work since it shows exact time twice a day” and I doubt even that. Our knowledge about existence is so modest that in the spirit of non working clock most accurate answer to question how did everything start would be “HOW THE F*** WOULD WE KNOW”. And I am quite comfortable with not knowing, it gives me space to accept any possible scenario, “GOD made us”, “GOD doesn't exist”, “all started with the big bang”, “who said we are actually existing”, “we do exist and in more dimensions then one”... For me, it is all possible and everything is unprobable, since – how the f*** would I know? "

I am struck with wonder and  I feel a stillness as I wander around this colossal build. 

I feel isolation. I feel loneliness. It's like a vast area dotted with wordly objects and entities that don't seem to fit together in the scheme of things, but look closely. There's a clock, an apple, a one eyed cyclops. The cyclops represents the one-eyed man with the narrow vision, reference is from a Tom Waits song. 

Like always, I found a chance to interview this great artist this month.

What are those green objects with wings surrounded by the transparent cubes?

I.B: Horses.



What is that cluster of globular like candles surrounded by a cloud?

I.B: Few years ago I was in some small church somewhere in Greece and they had some kind of village saint ceremony. It was mid august and it was terribly hot. Preacher had just his cape made of gold threads and no shirt, he was sweating like crazy. Church was full of old people, grandmothers all in black with almost no skin exposed. Lot of candles was lighted and they were melting. Whole place had really strong smell on sweat, candle-wax, incense and what not (filthy feet) and in one moment all that scene started to melt in my mind, it all visually stretched, up was down, down was up. I didn't faint or anything just one simple but strong hallucination. I tried to present it abstracted here inworld, no idea how much I succeeded since... no smell.



Why are there holes in the wall surrounding your build?

I.B: Right question would be "why are there walls?". Walls are necessary evil to visually separate my work from neighBORING sims (one of them looks like fuckin' sandbox, the other one is just plane ugly sim). About holes, they are there since I hated walls, needed some wind to go through them so I prevent that church smell on my sim.


Why is an apple surrounded by a net?

I.B: That is an GMO apple. It all started with an GMO apple. Apple is of course symbol of thing that cost us heaven. So my question is: "what if this what we had so far was heaven and now we are tasting apple that will doom us? Science brought us some really amazing achievements but when science is profit oriented, it's products belong to the dark side.


Your statement that includes "how the f*** should we know?" seems very frustrated and open. What do you think should be the better attitude that people should have about the world? Notice that I didn't say "right."

I.B: I am not frustrated, I just have bad manners so I swear a lot, everyone who knows me knows that. About "what I think would be better attitude" I will answer in next question.


Do you believe that there is a thing called "right", does it even exist?

I.B: There is right and there is also left. There is up and down, there is also depth and behind and there is infinite many directions among this crude few. In my opinion, people should widen their mind, we should think both right and left in same time. We should not claim one true belief. If you need illustration how you should think, just imagine your mind is universe. There is no one true direction in universe. I am horrified with those who refuse to let their mind expand. If expansion is good enough for universe, why would it be bad for you?

As of May 2oth,


Past few days my country is affected by Biblical size floods that were never recorded in our history. Tens of thousands people is evacuated from their homes and thousands of homes is under water. As you can understand, human lifes are most valuable to save but uncounted number of animals lost their lifes. This morning I have wake up with news that more then 100 tons of dead animals is gathered just from one city. And it is not over yet...

In this light, for solidarity, I have decided to flood my new ongoing work “Cyber Orthodox”  in LEA 6. I left peaks of work above, same as rooftops of houses are above in this floods.

Igor Ballyhoo

So please come see it while you can, at LEA6.

Have fun and enjoy the art!

-Victoria Lenoirre