The Utah Monolith, What It Means, Why It Matters, and Whether It's Aliens
In which John discusses a metal obelisk that stood for years unnoticed in the Utah desert before being discovered by some wildlife biologists, whereupon the monolith quickly disappeared. Also discussed: contemporary art in deserts, Gertrude Stein's essay What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them, and John's ongoing obsession with that one line from The Great Gatsby. SOURCES AND CREDITS:
The footage of Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels (completed in 1976) and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) are from The Art Assignment's Spiral Jetty, Sun Tunnels, and Salt: • Spiral Jetty, Sun Tunnels, and Salt
Unless otherwise noted, footage of the obelisk is from the Bureau of Land Management or the Utah Department of Natural Resources.
The photograph of Elmgreen and Dragset's Prada Marfa (2005) is by Nan Palmero. The photograph of the obelisk at 2:45 of this video is by Patrick A. Mackey.
The New York Times story about John McCracken's work and the monolith: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/ar...
And the Salt Lake Tribune's article: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/11/2...
You can also see some phenomenal photographs of the obelisk here: https://durangoherald.com/articles/35...
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