Sanborn's artwork has been displayed at the
High Museum of Art, the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. He has created sculptural works for the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Themes in his work have included "making the invisible visible", with many sculptures focusing on topics such as magnetism, the
coriolis effect, secret messages, and mysteries of atomic reactions.
Sculptures While in England studying archaeology, Sanborn endeavored to create a structure out of stone to gain a better insight on Romanesque sculptures. From this he has created many works of art that deal with invisible forces. These include the
coriolis effect and its use of
Newton's laws of motion that govern the motion of an object in an
inertial frame of reference. He has also worked on pieces that implemented the Earth's
magnetic field using
lodestones. Other sculptures have featured the science of
cryptography. One of Sanborn's most famous cryptographic works, entitled
Kryptos, is featured in
Dan Brown's 2009 novel
The Lost Symbol. The novel is one of books which includes
Robert Langdon, the symbologist.
Kryptos in Langley, Virginia
Kryptos was the first cryptographic sculpture made by Sanborn. It was presented to the
Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia on November 3, 1990. The sculpture has been both a
puzzle and a mystery for those who hope to crack the cyphered messages contained within the sculpture's 2,000 alphabetic letters. Since
Kryptos was erected, three of the four sections have been confirmed to have been solved. No one has yet been able to solve the remaining 97-character message. He has also said that should he die before the sculpture's code is cracked, there will be a "sort of historic record" left to verify the claim.
Lux Lux was built in 2001 at the Old Post Office Building in
Fort Myers,
Florida. Both cylinders are made of bronze and they stand as high as 8' with a diameter of 5'. Another work,
Caloosahatchee Manuscripts, is in the same location.
Exhibits Sanborn has also created works of art that reach into the realms of atomic energy and experimental physics. In
Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction, he presented a "life-size re-creation of a hypothetical atomic lab." The exhibit featured the sculpture
Critical Assembly, a three-dimensional representation of the components of an
atomic bomb. The sculpture included a disassembled sphere that had been designed to hold the nuclear payload of
plutonium and
uranium. His next exhibit
Terrestrial Physics, was to displayed in June 2010 as part of
Denver, Colorado's
Biennial of the Americas. It included a sculpture that is able to generate a 1 million
volt potential difference. Utilizing a recreated
Van de Graaff generator, Sanborn created a fully functional particle accelerator capable of creating
nuclear fission.
Large-scale outdoor projects In addition to designing intricate sculptures and exhibits, Sanborn has also turned some of his large-scale outdoor art into an interactive experience.
Coastline located at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Headquarters in
Silver Spring, Maryland, is one such piece. A recreation of a portion of Atlantic coastline, the waves experienced here are transferred in "real time" from a monitoring station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Sanborn designed
Indian run park located adjacent to the U.S. Federal Courthouse in
Beltsville, Maryland, with inspiration from the
Iroquois Nations that inhabited the area nearly 900 years ago. On this site, hundreds of artifacts by the Iroquois have been discovered, and it is estimated that thousands still remain. The artist himself has also "seeded" 10,000 arrowheads within the grounds, allowing visitors the opportunity of taking a piece of this work of art with them. The park, named after the original Indian Run river that once existed there, includes a waterfall and walkway resembling the snaking waterway. Also, located within the park is a bronze cylindrical sculpture written in
Onondaga language and "transcribed from the ancient oral tradition of the five Iroquois nations." At night it is illuminated with a pinpoint light that emits its text upon the surrounding environment. ==Literature==