Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/30/utah-monolith-was-removed-and-broken-down-by-annoyed-locals.html
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Good. I love this concept and how it played out, but once every dimwit on Instagram starts rushing it, it’s time to take it down.
Damn straight!
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Mother Nature is an artist, it’s best to leave the art in the wild to her.
And yet if were 500-1000 years older it would be considered an important art artifact to be protected.
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I doubt it. The “monolith” appears to have gone on vacation:
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The trash comment makes me think they were metal recyclers looking for an easy buck.
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For some reason, this reminds me of this:
The weird thing is, if you have little kids, if you have little boys and little girls, you would never think it would ever be a man’s world ’cause if you put a 3-year-old boy next to a 3-year-old girl and you had to pick who was gonna be in charge in the future, you wouldn’t be like, “The boy, the one chewing on the table.” - Jim Gaffigan
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Mother Nature is an artist, it’s best to leave the art in the wild to her.
What a depressingly narrow view.
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Perhaps so, but also VERY appropriate in this case. No, it’s not OK to plop your art installation down in the middle of a fragile biome, with no permission and little to no regard to the damage you’re causing. Installing it was the very acme of arrogance, in my opinion.
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But does it harvest orgone energy?
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lol wut? The leave no trace comment makes me think that they’re responsible conservationists.
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the rangers weren’t that upset about it when they found it last week, so i don’t think we need to be SO precious about the area. i’m sure it will survive a literal less-than-one-week influx of extra people.
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If it was actually a problem then I think it should have been removed. Removing it because some dim witted locals don’t understand or appreciate art and probably wanted to “own some libs” is not justification for removing it. I doubt it was much of a disturbance. It should have been left to BLM to decide whether or not to remove it.
Anyone upset with this would have died seeing Christos work.
I’m sure the “own them libs” mantra would be in full effect and all of Christos work would have been torn down by a bunch of knuckle dragging idiots.
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As a space alien I have to say that thing was infringing on our brand, namely inscrutability. really, we never use rivets and we don’t leave our stuff laying around.
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I didn’t mention the rangers, nor do I particularly care. Did you miss the bit about the swarms of visitors, stomping in from every direction? Nice…
Once again, this simply was not OK, and in fact was directly illegal. You wanna drop a legit secret monolith? Too bad, you’re gonna need at least need a permit and/or deed to the land; SOMEone will know.
You may think it’s merely me being “precious” but I’ll note our parks ARE precious, and abuse is far too common. The laws about land use in national and state parks are far too lenient, in my opinion, and certainly the enforcement of existing laws for parks and monuments is terribly weak (see also Cliven Bundy).
@Orb It was an illegal installation and was very definitely contributing to destruction of that area. Excuse and minimization fail. “Leave no trace” includes ALL your garbage, from soda cans to f*cking monoliths.
Would you be OK with me tossing a can into the bushes at a park, if I called it “sculpture”? Howzabout if I squash it into a little obelisk first; OK then? Perhaps if I weld 10,000 cans together? The answer here, of course, is NONE of those is OK, to leave in a park without permission and significant forethought on how to limit damage to the area (which is generally part of the process to gain permission).
I also would like to point out the extremely thoughtless arrogance, to blame “dim-witted locals” who want to “own the libs”, as people who were outraged by this and did something about it. I’m neither dim-witted nor local, and I’m a progressive liberal; I still heartily approve of the removal of the monolith.
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I disagree with recycling / dismantling it. It very well could have been an attempt at art - as boingboing points out in a later story. Artistic expression should be preserved if the artist has the wherewithal to put it to form, regardless of instagram / social media weirdos doing stuff. The annoyed locals could have attempted something else to deter the shitheads, without the destruction. Say for instance, moving it to the ranger station parking lot and putting a sign on it - leave no trace
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