Monolith emerges in California after works in Utah and Romania disappeared

DAYS AFTER the discovery and rapid disappearance of two gleaming metallic monoliths that were seen half the world from each other, another imposing structure appeared, this time at the pinnacle of a trail in Southern California.

Its straight sides and height appear similar to one discovered in the Utah desert and another that was found in Romania.

Like those structures, the California building’s origins are also mysterious.

It’s on the top of a hill in Atascadero, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Keyt-TV reported Wednesday.

The tall, silver structure attracted hikers to the area after photos were posted on social media.

A similar one seen about two weeks ago in the unearthly red rock country of Utah became a beacon of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew hundreds of people to the remote location.

But it soon disappeared, as did a similar structure that appeared last week in Romania.

A metal structure is glued from the ground on the Batca Doamnei hill, on the outskirts of Piatra Neamt, in northern Romania

Source: Robert Iosub via PA Images

Whitney Tassie, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, said the monolith was fascinating in part because of its context in the landscape.

“That’s a big, big part of land art in general is this idea of ​​an experience, of a journey,” he said.

The intense social media reaction to the monolith in the context of a punishing pandemic, along with the rapid destruction of the piece, has become part of its history, he said.

“It’s good to think about our relationship with the land, which is ultimately what these kinds of projects do,” said Ms Tassie.

“Man’s impact on the environment front and center”.

Two extreme sports athletes said this week they were part of a group that toppled the monolith in Utah because they were concerned about the damage crowds of visitors were causing to the relatively intact site.

Authorities said the visitors razed the plants with their cars and left behind human waste.