The Easel

How the Monoliths Became an Instagram Trap

A 10 ft polished steel column appeared suddenly in the Utah desert, only to disappear soon after. Similar objects have now appeared elsewhere. Unpersuaded that these are the handiwork of aliens, the writer sees them as someone’s “Minimalist homage to the rock and the grandeur of nature”. This “human intervention in the landscape, an act as old as civilization … [is] a wholesome, or at least joyfully absurd, moment of connection.”