Yet another monolith has appeared on a beach in England
Another day, another monolith to send the internet into a spin.
This time, one of these perplexing, shiny metal objects has washed up (or, rather, been artfully planted) on the shores of the Isle of Wight, UK.
Yes, the destination everyone at your primary school went on their summer holidays (if you grew up in England) is now home to a mon(olith)umental discovery. The mirrored monolith was discovered on Compton Beach on the island off the south coast of England on Sunday.
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To recap on all the monolith happenings, it all kicked off when a metal object was inexplicably discovered in Utah during a state officials' sheep counting mission late November.
Since the appearance of the first monolith (and its subsequent removal), several others have shown up in various locations, including one in Romania (though it's unclear if this one is a copycat), a third sculpture in Atascadero, California, and a fourth sculpture outside of Joshua Tree National Park, California.
A community of artists known as The Most Famous Artist has kind of, sort of claimed credit for some but not all of the monoliths, posting photos and videos to social media of the structures in situ and plans for their design, and commenting on other artist's posts about the structures. To add more confusion and anonymity to this already rather puzzling situation, the group has opted for a rather evasive method of responding to queries. When Mashable's Rachel Kraus spoke to The Most Famous Artist and asked if the Romanian sculpture was connected to the Utahn and Californian sculptures, the founder of the group, Matty Mo, responded saying, "I only had three spots for photos on my site," — this third monolith-related post on the group's website, and also posted to their Instagram page, shows an object ready for transit without an intended location specified. Then the Joshua Tree monolith showed up. Plus, the artists have promoted a link where anyone can apparently buy the sculptures for $45,000 a piece.
With regard to the monolith on the Isle of Wight, the collective released a statement of sorts on its Instagram page. Asked by a reporter if they're behind the UK monolith, The Most Famous Artist responded stating, "The monolith is out of my control at this point. Godspeed to all the aliens working hard around the globe to propagate the myth."
Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say: K, then.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.