New Art Installation Displayed at Jenness Beach in Rye

A new art installation is looking over the waves at Jenness State Beach in Rye.

The sculpture, called "Kelp Wave," was created by artist Terrence Parker and it serves as a collaborative project of the Council on the Arts and Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

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The installation features what seem to be three massive strands of kelp, intertwined and buckled to mimic the shape of a wave.

Ball and Chain Forge in Portland, Maine, which built the sculpture, said on its Facebook page that it consists of aluminum construction, stainless fasteners and a powder coat finish. It stands 15 feet tall.

Parker posted on Facebook that the sculpture is meant to be thought-provoking in more ways than one.

"The Kelp Wave is designed to suggest the curl and action of waves breaking. High tide and high seas. Storms. Power. Beauty. Danger. Excitement. All the things we understand the ocean to be," Parker wrote. "The Kelp Wave reminds us the ocean is essential to our health and we have been historically dependent upon it. The web of our connections to the ocean---economical, environmental, and emotional---are represented by the Kelp Wave."

Parker, a principal of Portsmouth-based terra firma landscape architecture, is also the designer behind the Music Hall streetscape renovation featuring the sweeping and now iconic arches.