Internet sleuths have arrived there, but its origins remain a mystery



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David Surber standing in front of the monolith
David Surber saw the apparent contact details online and decided he had to be the first there

It only took 48 hours for the first person to get there.

When Utah officials revealed Monday that they had found a shimmering metal structure deep in the Red Rock Desert, they declined to say exactly where.

They hoped that this would be enough to deter amateur adventurers from setting out on a search, risking dangerously lost in the process.

But people were unlikely to comply with this advice. On Wednesday, photos of people triumphantly posing with the monolith emerged on Instagram, eager to show the world that they came first – though the larger mystery of why it’s there remains unsolved.

They were helped by Internet detectives who quickly geolocated the structure on Google Earth and uploaded the coordinates.

“I decided to go there first because I was drawn to the fact that this object had been there for five years, hidden in nature,” said David Surber, a former infantry officer with the 33-year-old US Army who drove six hours through the night after finding a Reddit post claiming to have found the exact location.

State wildlife officials initially spotted the object on Nov. 18 as they conducted a helicopter flight over remote Mars-like terrain to count the big horn sheep. Reddit user who posted the coordinates, Tim Slane, said he followed the helicopter’s flight path until it disappeared from radar – a sign it could have landed.

At this point, he scanned the map for the exact features of the terrain seen in official photos and videos, before focusing on a canyon that appeared to fit the bill. There a distinct shadow – long and narrow – could be seen. It is not visible on historical satellite images from 2015, but does appear in October 2016 when the nearby scrubland also appears to have been cleaned up.

“I knew that once the location became public, people were going to visit the area,” Slane said. “I got angry messages for revealing the location. If I hadn’t found it, someone else probably would have found it soon enough.”

Satellite images showing the location of the Utah monolith
Satellite images showing the location of the Utah monolith

David, who lives in Utah, jumped into action – telling the Reddit community thousands of people following the mystery he was heading there. Along the way, he was bombarded with hundreds of messages and requests. They included things like, “Bring a magnet in case there’s a secret door!”

He arrived in the early hours of the morning while it was still dark. At first he was alone, marveling not only at the monolith but also at the shooting stars. Then others started to introduce themselves, having also found the contact details online. He was delighted to report his discovery to Reddit.

“It was a good escape from all the negativity we went through in 2020.”

David Surber filming himself inside the canyon near the monolith
David Surber filming himself inside the canyon near the monolith

But two questions remain: who put the structure there, and why?

While many have suggested – some sincerely, most jokingly – that the monolith was planted by extraterrestrial visitors, the dominant theory is that it is a conceptual work of art not yet claimed.

Initially, experts suggested that it may have been an unknown work by the late John McCracken, known for his “plank” sculptures. Its gallery owner David Zwirner initially confirmed this, but the gallery later retracted that statement, saying it believed it was another artist paying tribute instead. McCracken died in 2011.

Some online then focused on another artist, Petecia Le Fawnhawk, who installs totem sculptures in secret places in the desert and, most importantly, lived and worked in Utah.

But she told online art magazine Artnet that if she “had the idea of ​​planting secret monuments in the desert,” she “couldn’t claim this one.” The creator of the totem pole therefore remains a mystery for the moment.

John mccracken
John McCracken – the late artist many first mentioned when the news broke

It is not uncommon for works of art to be installed in remote locations – either as sculptures or as ‘land art’, an art form that uses its natural surroundings. For many of these pieces, the journey to get there is as much a part of the work as the installation itself.

One of the most famous examples of this is The Lightning Field by Walter de Maria. Its exact location is a well-kept secret – all that is known is that it is in the high desert of western New Mexico. Another is Martin Hill and Philippa Jones’ temporary land art, like Synergy – a piece that was installed in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, in 2009.

Photo of David Surber's monolith
Photo of David Surber’s monolith

Andy Merritt, a British artist who creates outdoor public sculptures as part of the duo, Something and Son, said that when he saw stories about the Utah monolith, he thought it was “either an artist, ie a rich person who has fantasies around 2001.: A Space Odyssey “.

“There are so many artists doing stuff in unusual places, especially in America,” said Merritt, who plans to “fossilize” a suburban house in Milton Keynes, north London, next spring in pouring a mixture in and melting its negative space. “Even in my own job, we always want to do things in unusual places.

“If you would take what they did in the middle of Utah – assuming he’s an artist – and put it somewhere else, like a public square, that would be a lot less interesting. the landscape itself which is really the topic of discussion. “

Videos of dozens – if not hundreds of people – who have visited the premises before suggest a professional job. Three large sheets of what appears to be stainless steel were riveted together, the interior left hollow. Whoever put it there used sturdy tools to cut into the bedrock and incorporate the structure.

“From the start, I had hoped it was another world… that wouldn’t want it to be. Yet deep down you know he was probably just a very patient artist or a fan of Space Odyssey 2001, ”David recalls after his trip. the monolith.

Like Andy Merritt, he refers to the towering black monoliths that play an important, yet mysterious, role in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In an interview Thursday, a Utah Department of Public Safety information official told the BBC that while they do not encourage anyone to visit the monolith because it could be dangerous, they do not can do nothing for the area is public land. No decision has been made to remove it.

“The genie is out of the bottle,” Corporal Andrew Battenfield said, when told people were showing up and posting photos on social media. “It is a free country.”

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