If you’ve seen Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey, you might remember that freaky fucking monolith that features heavily throughout the film. Well, some wise-guy has just inserted their own monolith smack bang in the middle of the Utah desert, and everyone is confused AF.
The shiny-metal-stick was spotted by a helicopter pilot last week, who guessed it was around 3 metres high.
“I’m assuming it’s some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan,” The helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings said.
“I have to admit, that’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all the years of flying,” he added.
Some people guessed that the work was created by minimalist sculptor John McCracken, who died in 2011.
Pictured above is one of McCracken’s artworks, and it does look very similar to the mystery Utah monolith.
Art curator David Zwirner, whose gallery represents McCracken said his gallery is “divided on this.”
But Zwirner believes that the work is “definitely by John.”
Well I guess that kind of confirms it. But what does it all mean?
If you’ve never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, or read the series by Arthur C Clarke, here’s a little refresher. Basically, at the beginning of the film a group of apes discover a black monolith and shortly afterwards develop sapience. Later in the film, a group of astronauts discover the monolith in a crater on the moon.
There are many theories about Kubrick and Clarke’s monolith object, but there is no definitive answer about it means. The same can probably be said about Utah’s metal version. So if you’re looking for answers, you simply won’t find any.
