The idea for the project came to Kalish as he was falling asleep one night in 2008: an array of custom-made, teardrop-shaped speed bags suspended in midair that, from just one vantage point, align themselves like pixels into an image of Ali’s face. But the LA-based artist, best known for crafting portraits of American icons out of license plates and other found objects—he counts Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger among his collectors—knew he couldn’t construct such a large-scale installation on his own. So he retained architectural firm Oyler Wu to design the structure in which the bags are suspended. (At the unveiling ceremony, Ali will hang the final bag.)