Eleanor Mueller

USA TODAY Network

A 6-acre face shaped from dirt and sand now appears on the National Mall in Washington as the National Portrait Gallery's latest installment.

Visible from the top of the Washington Monument and even outer space, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the so-called "landscape portrait" was created by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, a Cuban-American urban artist. Appearing from the ground as stripes of dirt and sand, the exhibit doubles as an interactive walk-through experience.

Construction on the piece began in September, when Rodriguez-Gerada used GPS technology to place 10,000 wooden pegs, connected by twine, that served as guidelines for the rows. Construction companies then aided the artist in arranging 2,000 tons of sand and 800 tons of dirt in a precise pattern.

The profile itself is a composite image Rodriguez-Gerada created from photographs taken of young men walking the Mall. Titled "Out of Many, One" — the English translation of the Latin phrase E pluribus unum — it's the artist's first project in the United States. However, he has completed several similar pieces in Amsterdam, Northern Ireland, Spain and other countries, using beaches, buildings and billboards as his canvas.

The face will remain on the Mall until the end of the month, when the dirt and sand will be tilled into the ground as part of the National Park Service's turf restoration.

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