It’s a weighty project from all angles, especially for sculptor Sijia Chen, who grew up in China and now lives in Los Angeles.

Throughout 2023, Portsmouth has been celebrating its 400 years of history with all sorts of events, from a parade to exhibits, performances to educational programs.

Now Chen has added a permanent view of maritime history for generations to come.

It’s the first sculpture to be installed in Bohenko Gateway Park on Market Street beside the Piscataqua River, and it’s a striking sight.

“Endeavor” rises 24 feet off the ground, stretching toward both the sky and the water that’s been a lifeline for so long.

Up close the sculpture looks like two billowing ship sails. The steel gives off a sense of strength and resilience as if harnessing strong winds.

But it’s also graceful, with its lofty curves and etched images that are like imprints bridging ancient beginnings with centuries of change and growth on the Seacoast.

The public got its first peek of the finished piece on Dec. 12, when the Portsmouth NH 400 Legacy Project sculpture was presented to the city by Portsmouth NH 400 Inc. Chen, Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley and Portsmouth NH 400’s Managing Director Valerie Rochon were on hand to formally unveil the permanent work of art.

Making historyChen, when reached during her latest visit to Portsmouth, jokes about that day’s 20-degree temperature and her recent purchase of a much heavier coat for New Hampshire’s unpredictable winter weather.

She talks about a warmer summer day when she first came here and was inspired by the sight of the Gundalow Company’s Piscataqua, built in 2011 to represent a type of cargo barge that once ferried building materials, coal and food.

It resonated with Chen, bringing back memories of her upbringing in China’s coastal city of Shantou. “It started out as a little fishing town and then developed into a port city,” she said of her childhood home.

“Even though I’m not from Portsmouth, I understand the significance of it.”

Chen, the winner of the Legacy Project Sculpture Design Contest, scoured historical resources and spent a month gathering input from the Portsmouth community about things they thought were integral to the region’s maritime history.

Rochon, PNH400’s managing director, said that the Legacy Project team, led by Ernie Greenslade, drew more than 40 contest entries. A review team from the city and community and public art experts unanimously chose Chen’s design.

“It’s not just mine,” Chen said. “I want people to look at the work and not just see me. I want them to see themselves, too. We share so much common values. (We’re) living in a world of multiculturalism but underneath we are human beings, (with) emotions, aspirations and challenges. We connect on that level.”

The result is a sculpture that represents, among other things, indigenous people who once fished the waterways, lighthouses that guided ships to land and the Navy submarine Albacore, which from 1953 to 1972 tested out experimental equipment that led to modern-day sub designs.

Scenes also include two children looking out toward where the Piscataqua, the boundary between New Hampshire and Maine, empties into the Atlantic Ocean. They’re keeping watch for the return of a loved one.

From paper to steel

Chen, who has permanent public art work in China and across the United States, earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China, and her master’s degree from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia.

For the Granite State project she started by using Rhino software to make a 3D papercut, the blueprint for what would become the laser-cut 24-foot-tall steel sculpture.

Her father is a papercut artist and she learned the craft at a young age.

“It makes me feel connected to my family and community,” she said.

The sculpture and Bohenko Gateway Park, named for former City Manager John Bohenko, are part of a beautification project on the Market Street Extension, where drivers from Interstate 95 funnel into downtown.

The site features a city-funded pavilion, benches and a kiosk with NH Division of Historical Resources information about the city’s history and environment.