PHOTO GALLERY: 'Alluvium' Debuts at North Bethesda Market

Friday night was the grand reveal for artist Jim Sanborn's large-scale art installation, "Alluvium." The 300-foot installation spans 300 feet at North Bethesda Market's outdoor plaza.

Sanborn is well known for his CIA encrypted sculpture "Kryptos," which was featured in Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol." His latest art installation, "Alluvium," includes mountains, trees, boulders, rocks and language that describes areas of Montgomery County and Maryland including the Chesapeake Bay and Shenandoah Mountains.

One part of the installation is the signature bronze projection cylinder. The 4-by-8-foot cylinder is perforated with waterjet-cut text, Sanborn described during the "Art at Dusk" reception. During the day, people can read the text by walking around the cylinder. At night, a single pin-point light source in the center of the cylinder illuminates the text on the facade of surrounding buildings and pavement.

Instead of using code, as he did in the "Kryptos" sculpture, Sanborn uses international languages as text.

"There's not a whole lot of mystery here," he said. "But it takes a certain amount of effort to actually read the text."

Over the 300-foot installation, text is written in Latin, French, English and Chinese, quoting the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Muir, George Alsop and Louis and Clark.

The art installation can be seen daily in the outdoor plaza near the new , LA Fitness and Seasons 52 restaurant across from .