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 not before another one popped up in Romania and Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.
While the monoliths have sparked countless alien theories, 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 artists 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.”
Mashable notes that claiming credit could very well be part of the art for Mo.
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.”
“They’re everywhere and there will be plenty more to locate. Go straight to the source to find out more and get your very own @TheMostFamousArtist @TMFACommunity”; “A lot have asked if ‘I’ knew all along… It’s not ‘I’ folks, it’s ‘we.’ It’s @tmfacommunity.”
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