The Utah monolith is back – in California? Where it could go next
We’ve truly seen it all in 2020. A global pandemic, way too many tragic deaths of public figures, political riots, natural disasters, and even murder hornets. Of course, it would come to no surprise that the final cherry on top to close off the year would be a possible alien visitation.
In the past few weeks, people have found a total of three monoliths around the world, and many have hypothesized theories as outlandish as alien invasions to promotional marketing tactics by a brand. However, it seems that the culprit themselves have stepped forward to fess up: a community of artists known as “The Most Famous Artist”.
What happened?
On December 3, The Most Famous Artist posted photos of the monoliths on their Instagram account. The first post was a picture of the monolith with a person standing near it with an emoji censored over their face. The caption read “Checking in… any collectors interested in an official alien monolith? Asking $45k. Includes documentation and signed TMFA 🤓”.
It seems like the group is really trying to sell this monolith, because they also posted a screenshot from their website, also offering the monolith for a daunting $45,000. It listed its dimensions of being ten feet tall, and added that delivery & installment was included in the price.
Since then, the group has released two more posts about the Utah monolith. The first were screenshots of the Mashable article that first reported their story, and the other was a video of the monolith render during their design process of the art installment. When asked by other users if it was them, the group responded multiple times: “if by you you mean us, yes.”
In response to one user who wrote: “I was hoping it would pop up somewhere more accessible that I would come across one day”, the group replied “patience :)”. Although the group has already stepped forward to claim responsibility, could this mean the project is far from over?
Who are these people?
If you’re wondering who these people are, The Most Famous Artist is a conceptual art group created by contemporary artist Matty Mo.
Matty Mo may be a name that sounds familiar to you, as he’s notoriously known for many of his previous art projects. These include the “#selfiewall” in Venice Beach, CA, dubbed by Los Angeles Magazine as “The Most Instagrammable Wall in LA”, and his most famous illegal stunt – in 2017, Mo messed with the Hollywood sign, making it read “Hollyweed”.
Mashable reported that when they reached out to Matty Mo via Twitter, Mo neither confirmed nor denied whether he contributed to the project, and didn’t share further proof. However, his art group has already added a section of their website dedicated to the monoliths.
No clear confirmation
In a DM to Mashable, Matty Mo wrote: “I am not able to say much because of legalities of the original installation. 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.”
Per Mashable, when they asked Mo “in god’s name, WHY?”, he simply answered, “What better way to end this fucked up year than let the world briefly think aliens made contact only to be disappointed that it’s just The Most Famous Artist playing tricks again.”
All the monoliths found
The first monolith was found in mid-November somewhere in southeastern Utah. Just a few days ago, a second popped up all the way in Romania, which some believe may or may not be a copycat. The final installment was discovered just recently on Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.
All the pieces were described to be made of a reflective & smooth stainless steel and built together with rivets & welding. The monoliths were all three-sided with a triangular footprint.
The monoliths all bear a striking resemblance to the notorious monolith featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which explains why so many were quick to conclude it was an alien visitation. While that may seem absolutely crazy now that we know the real truth, can we really blame them after everything else we’ve experienced in this insane year?
