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Kelp Wave

The Kelp Wave references the ocean as a living entity.

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. Beyond the visual, the ocean is a dynamic ecosystem. It is filled with life from plankton to the leviathans and detritus, from surfboards to driftwood, from wildlife to islands of plastic waste.

Kelp is the perfect symbol for the promise of what the ocean holds. Kelp helps create the environment to sustain fish habitat, it captures carbon, it converts the life of the sun to food, and it may very well be a new economic driver for the Gulf of Maine and our Seacoast as an important sustainable food source for this century.

The Kelp Wave also reminds us the ocean is essential to our health and we have been historically dependent upon it. All our connections and the web of dependencies---economical, environmental, and emotional---are represented by the Kelp Wave.  

The three vertical strands of the Kelp Wave have flattened ribbons of steel forming the wide blades of the kelp as it twists and turns up to the crest of the wave. The strands are painted a bright chrome, metallic and shiny to reflect the sun, suggesting a universality.

The Kelp Wave was fabricated by Bob Menard of the Ball and Chain Forge in Portland, ME. https://www.ballandchainforge.com/

The concrete footing was installed by the gang at CUSA Consulting of Hampton, NH

 

Kelp Waving

I always loved Kelp without knowing why.
So elastic and rubbery.
A vegetable that feels like a fleshy animal.
So much of the of the ocean ecology and wildlife is abstract and mysterious
until it is detached and dead
at our feet or on our plate.

I thought Kelp was so resilient when
years-ago friends and I jumped rope with it on a Pacific beach.
We galloped up and down the shore, singly or in pairs,
swinging a tree length strand of kelp,
enthralled by our youthful spontaneity and kelp’s dexterity.

Forests of kelp have always basked in the cold-water sunshine of both coasts,
but it wasn’t until I could play with it,
that it entered my consciousness.
And then my diet.

But like much of nature, our delicate kelp is losing its ground.
Not just to my appetite.
As our oceans heat up, kelp recedes to invasive algae.
With no place to hide Lobsters swim away.
Away. Away. Not just the lobsters go away.

Is the act of memorialized kelp with beach front statues,
surrendering to loss,                       acknowledging our disconnect,
or is it a commitment to reengaging with life?

10.3.20     

Click on any thumbnail for a larger view.