Metal Artists Reveal Themselves As Makers of California Monolith
The bizarre saga continues.
A group of four metal artists has declared themselves the makers of a mysterious monolith that appeared on Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California last week. Created by Wade McKenzie, Travis Kenney, Randall Kenney and Jared Riddle, the California structure is the third in a series of seemingly supernatural towers that appeared in choice locations across the world, the first in Utah’s Red Rock Country and the second in Piatra Neamt, Romania.
The artists were inspired to build their own version of the original Utah monolith after hearing that a second had appeared in Romania. “We were like, ‘There needs to be a third,’” Travis explained. It took the group only a few hours to build the 10-foot-tall stainless steel structure, which they carried two miles up Pine Mountain during the early morning hours of December 1. On December 3, their monolith was toppled by a group of men who tore down the structure and left a wooden cross in its place. The artists decided to reveal themselves as the minds behind the California monolith after erecting a replacement — captured in a YouTube video, above — on the evening of December 4. “We intended for it to be a piece of guerrilla art. But when it was taken down in such a malicious manner, we decided we needed to replace it,” McKenzie told The New York Times.
Though the mystery of the California monolith has been solved, it remains unclear who is responsible for the monoliths in Utah and Romania.
