Why There Is a HUGE Face on The National Mall
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Keith Lane/MCT via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The National Mall looks different today. You may only notice what looks like a zen garden while walking past it. But from up above the Washington Monument, you’ll notice a face.
The face is a 6-acre portrait shaped by Cuban American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, who used 2,500 tons of sand and 800 tons of soil. The eye is made from gravel.
But whose face is it? The portrait isn’t of anyone famous. Instead, it is several faces merged into one.
Rodriguez-Gerada told The Washington Post he photographed young men at the National Mall and created a composite image.
The project is called “Out of Many, One,” which is the English translation of E Pluribus Unum.
Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, the project was started on Sept. 2 and finished Thursday.
Bethany Bentley, a spokeswoman for the National Portrait Gallery, said that so far people have been enthusiastic about the portrait.
“When they’re looking at it, they’re trying to figure it out. Then they have this ah-ha moment especially when they’re at the top of the Washington Monument,” she said.
The giant portrait will be on display until Oct. 31.
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