A Russian art group’s plans to install an Eye of Sauron high above Moscow to celebrate the release of the final Hobbit movie have met with their own deadly Balrog—the Russian Orthodox Church.
The church’s reaction to the art group Svechenie’s latest project was so severe that the group canceled its plans to place the all-seeing eye from The Lord of the Rings 21 stories above the city.
The art project was only intended to be lit for a few hours and had no overt purpose other than: How cool would it be to put a giant, flaming, 3D eye on top of a skyscraper? You know, typical modern art.
But after the church labeled the Tolkien iconography “demonic,” Svechenie evidently decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle, or the potential pact with Satan.
According to the Telegraph, Vsevolod Chaplin, the church’s head of public affairs, told a Russian radio station earlier this week that Sauron’s second pair of aerial eyes were “a symbol of the triumph of evil…rising up over the city.”
An evil aerial watcher following the moves of anyone who might be harboring a ring with revolutionary, regime-destroying potential?
Sounds just like any other spy satellite to us.
But Chaplin warned that if the project went through then bad things might start happening to the city.
Between his statements and the general public’s uncertainty over whether an evil light show was a wise artistic direction for the city of Moscow, the project, which would have kicked off tonight, is a no-go.
Still, if the only requirements for “Satanic iconography” these days are ‘eyes floating in mid-air that appear to mystically see everything,’ well. Let’s just hope the Russian Orthodox Church never finds out about The Great Gatsby.
H/T via PopWatch | Illustration by Simon C Page/Tumblr