Southwest Lens and Paws: The demise of the Utah Monolith

The following is not my account, but one I found on a FB group for off-roading.

If you're interested in what exactly happened to the monolith keep reading because I was literally there. On Friday, 3 friends and myself drove the 6 hours down to the middle of nowhere in Utah and got to the "trailhead" around 7 PM after passing a sea of cars on our way in.

We passed one group as we hiked towards the mysterious monolith, while another group was there when we arrived, and they left pretty quick after we got there. For the next hour and 40 minutes we had the place to ourselves.

I had just finished taking some photos of the monolith under the moonlight and was taking a break, thinking about settings I needed to change for my last battery of drone flight when we heard some voices coming up the canyon. We were contemplating packing up our things as they walked up, so they could enjoy it for themselves like we did. At this point I looked down at my watch and it was 8:40 PM.

4 guys rounded the corner and 2 of them walked forward. They gave a couple of pushes on the monolith and one of them said "You better have got your pictures." He then gave it a big push, and it went over, leaning to one side. He yelled back to his other friends that they didn't need the tools. The other guy with him at the monolith then said "this is why you don't leave trash in the desert." Then all four of them came up and pushed it almost to the ground on one side, before they decided push it back the other when it then popped out and landed on the ground with a loud bang. They quickly broke it apart and as they were carrying to the wheelbarrow that they had brought one of them looked back at us all and said "Leave no trace." That was at 8:48.

If you're asking why we didn't stop them well, they were right to take it out. We stayed the night and the next day hiked to a hill top overlooking the area where we saw at least 70 different cars (and a plane) in and out. Cars parking everywhere in the delicate desert landscape. Nobody following a path or each other. We could literally see people trying to approach it from every direction to try and reach it, permanently altering the untouched landscape. Mother Nature is an artist, it's best to leave the art in the wild to her.

In today's news:

https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/artists-group-takes-credit-for-mysterious-utah-monolith/amp/

The mystery of the monolith has been solved.

The world watched in wonder when a metal monolith was discovered in the southern Utah desert last month by wildlife officials who were counting sheep from a helicopter – stumping the Bureau of Land Management.

Two weeks after it appeared, the monolith was dismantled by four men.

But then another one appeared, this time across the globe in Romania. And just like the first one, it too vanished.

“The 2.8-meter-tall structure disappeared overnight as quietly as it was erected,” local journalist Robert Iosub told Reuters.

A third one appeared Wednesday, this time a top Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.

Nobody knew who was responsible for the mysterious structures, until now.

While the monoliths’ origin has sparked countless theories, from aliens to a marketing ploy, a small community of “stunt artists” have now seemingly claimed responsibility — and are even offering up more… for a hefty $45,000 price.

The community of artists known as The Most Famous Artist posted a photo of the monolith on their Instagram account Friday saying only “monolith-at-a-service.com.” The photo of the three-sided metal monolith included specs of the artwork noting: “Authentic dimensions and museum quality materials; edition of 3+1 artist proof; delivery and installation included; Blockchain certification of authenticity, signed and dated ‘The Most Famous Artists 2020’” – and added delivery would take 4 to 6 weeks.

Later in the day the group posted Instagram pics of articles about them from Mashable, Fox News and Artnet – before adding a post with yet another monolith, this one in Joshua Tree National Park, adding “ANOTHER Monolith outside of Joshua Tree. That makes 4. What does it mean?” At the end of the day, to provide proof, the final post featured a masked artist in the process of making one of the mythical monoliths, and poking fun of the alien conspiracies, saying: “You mean it wasn’t aliens?!”

When followers of the account asked, “Was it you?,” the account repeatedly responded: “if by you you mean us, yes.”

In an interview with Mashable, the founder of the collective, Matty Mo, who has been posting about the monolith on Twitter, said he didn’t post the Romanian monolith because: “I only had 3 spots for photos on my site.”

Mo, who once transformed the famous “Hollywood” sign in Los Angeles to read “Hollyweed,” “would neither confirm nor deny that he was taking credit, and wouldn’t share additional proof,” Mashable noted.

“I am not able to say much because of legalities of the original installation,” Mo wrote to Mashable via Twitter. “I can say we are well known for stunts of this nature and at this time we are offering authentic art objects through monoliths-as-a-service. I cannot issue additional images at this time, but I can promise more on this in the coming days and weeks.”

Meanwhile, potential collaborator Carlos Estrada noted on Instagram: “did me and @themostfamousartist make the monolith?” to which The Most Famous Artist responded in their own story: “NOT NO.”

Mashable noted that photographer Erik Junke, aka @photojunke on Instagram, could be another collaborator, adding that Junke posted images of the California desert captioned “Doorway” and “Doorway II.” The posts were also tagged “#monolith” and were included in the stories and were reposted by The Most Famous Artist and captioned: “Are people talking about monoliths or something? It’s like they didn’t see it coming.”