There are curious pieces of art arranged over a hundred-yard stretch of concrete slabs in the Potomac River opposite Old Town Alexandria. To come up with the concept, construct the pieces, and then get them up on those treacherous slabs is a lot of work for something so under the radar. I can’t find anything online. I’m wondering if Answer Man can come up with anything.

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       — John Neer, Alexandria

       Each sculpture is composed of a disembodied, life-size human arm, from just above the elbow down to the hand. The fingers clutch the handles of a boxy suitcase. In all, there are 10 identical works, yellow in color, positioned close to the Maryland shore upriver from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

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       The sculptures would look oddly striking in any setting. They are especially so here, in the midst of the wild Potomac.

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       But how wild is it, really? The art sits in a cove called the Spoils, which is peppered with chunks of rebar-studded concrete that were scraped from the Wilson Bridge when it was resurfaced in 2008 and placed in the water as habitat for fish.

       When artist Jeremy Thomas Kunkel spied the spot, he knew it was the perfect canvas for his creation.

       “Over the past few years I’ve been spending a lot of time traveling around the Beltway and the whole landscape of the DMV [looking for] what I call urban islands,” Kunkel told Answer Man. “These are areas cut off by on-ramps, offramps and freeways, interesting landscapes that are islands to themselves, inaccessible to people.”

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       Kunkel, 51, studied sculpture at George Mason University and received his MFA from the University of Maryland.

       “I saw this arrangement of concrete slabs and rebar, this debris jutting into water,” Kunkel said. “When I saw that, it came together with this arm and suitcase form.”

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       That construction — he calls it “Arm, in Case” — has been one of Kunkel’s signature motifs. Various numbers of Kunkel suitcases were part of more conventional exhibits in Virginia in 2016 and Foggy Bottom in 2018. The suitcases are cast from a hand-carved wood and resin mold. The arms are cast from an actual person. (Kunkel declined to say who.) The completed assemblages are cast in concrete.

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       Kunkel placed these particular sculptures in May. It wasn’t easy. Each weighs 200 pounds.

       “It was a process, I’ll be honest,” Kunkel said. “It took a couple of years to really finalize the idea of how that was going to work, to get a hold of equipment to make that happen and find the proper way to access it. Certain aspects of the landscape you don’t want to disturb.”

       Kunkel has a small bass boat into which he loaded the statues, no more than two at a time.

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       “A couple of times it was windy and I was taking on water,” he said.

       The setting in the tidal portion of the river means the sculptures sometimes appear to float on the water.

       So, what do they mean?

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       “The suitcases themselves are about displacement, abandonment, exile,” Kunkel said. They are a commentary on what humans do to one another.

       The unlikely setting supercharges that notion.

       “The location itself is fantastic in that it’s subtle,” Kunkel said.

       It is both visible from the Wilson Bridge and invisible: a blur from the corner of the eye. That applies to a lot of humanity, too.

       “It’s willful ignorance,” Kunkel said. “We know it’s there, but we keep going about our day, the way one might think about somebody being displaced, abandoned. Those issues are happening, but we go about our day.”

       Most works of art are destined for homes or galleries. Kunkel couldn’t really be sure anyone would ever see this installation.

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       “I like to think of it as a slow awareness,” he said. “Eventually there’s an evolution of an awareness that’s going to take place. They are in a place which is fairly subtle, but they are a human form, and they were made. They’re not from natural materials pulled up and organized in a way.”

       Answer Man asked Kunkel whether he had permission to install the art.

       “I don’t know how to answer that question,” he said.

       And what of its future? What if someone orders its removal?

       Kunkel is open to discussion.

       “You’re not going to walk into a room and make everybody happy,” he said. “When I approach that, then there’s a sensible discussion about it. Then maybe that’s the end life of the work. I have to cross that bridge when I get to it.”

       Helping Hand

       Displacement, abandonment, exile — those issues also apply to people who are experiencing homelessness in our area. Like the urban islands Kunkel seeks out, we see them but we don’t really see them.

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       Fortunately, many charities in the Washington area are working to end homelessness. Three are partners in The Washington Post Helping Hand, our annual fundraising drive: Bread for the City, Friendship Place and Miriam’s Kitchen.

       To learn about what they do — and to make a donation — visit posthelpinghand.com.

       Twitter: @johnkelly

       For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

       Do you have a question about the Washington area? Send it to answerman@washpost.com.