This Six-Acre Portrait on D.C.'s National Mall Can Be Seen From Space

There’s a new face on the National Mall, but this latest installment in Washington can’t be seen from the ground. Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, who was commissioned by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the National Park Service, designed a six-acre piece titled “Out of Many, One.” It’s a massive portrait made of sand and soil, its size rivaling the nearby Reflecting Pool. National Mall visitors may not be able to make out the face of the young boy from the ground, but the piece will be visible from the top of the Washington Monument–or perhaps, when they’re flying above the District.

Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada demonstrates how a 'rover,' or high-precision GPS marker, was used to create his six-acre sand and soil 'facescape' on the National Mall in Washington, Oct. 1, 2014.

Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images

In an interview with the Washington Post, Rodriguez-Gerada described it as having “a Zen garden feeling as people walk through it and think, ‘Am I by the eye?’ ‘Is this the nostril? It’s a different way of trying to find where you are.”

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