Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada named his latest work of art "Out of Many, One," and the 10-by-6-acre portrait displayed on the National Mall does visually reflect the title's inspiration, the Latin phrase "E pluribus unum."
Rodriguez-Gerada completed the "facescape" art installation, located between the World War II and Lincoln memorials, in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 1. He started the project on Sept. 2 and the piece, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, will stay on display until Oct. 31.
"It's not the face of America," Rodriguez-Gerada said at the portrait's unveiling. "It's one of the hundreds of millions of possible faces that America has because America's identity, individually, can be very complex or just the opposite but all of them have to be embraced by us."
To create the look of the face, Rodriguez-Gerada took pictures of young men walking on the Mall and created a composite image of their faces, according to The Washington Post.
The artwork required 2,000 tons of sand, 800 tons of soil, 10,000 wooden pegs and 8 miles of string. The eye is made of gravel. Rodriguez-Gerada used GPS technology to place the pegs that became "a guideline for the face," according to The Washington Post.
"It epitomizes the spirit of America," Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet. "Each individual makes a difference, and combined, we make up this amazing country. We're celebrating what makes this place great."
Visitors to the Mall can walk through the art piece or see the completed work at the top of the Washington Monument. The National Park Service will then recycle the materials by tilling the sand and soil into the ground as part of the agency's turf restoration project.
The artist has created similar terrestrial works in Amsterdam, North Ireland and France. The New Jersey native also created a portrait of Barack Obama on a beach in Barcelona, Spain that he debuted the day before the 2008 presidential election, according to The Washington Post.
