Nestled in an alley between busy shops and offices on Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth is a pine room with birch saplings sticking out the top.

“You look in the window and, first of all, you see the trees. You kind of slowly realize you’re looking at your reflection like a mirror,” said Jamie Calderwood, the Portsmouth artist who made the piece called, “Inside/Out.”  

It’s a reversal of the modern world, where people are sheltered from the wilderness in their comfortable homes, provoking meditations on the relationship between the man-made and the natural environment.

“You’re placing something out in the public realm that people don’t normally see,” Calderwood said. “It changes their perspective or affects their daily lives.”

The artwork is one of six in the Overnight Art project, arranged by Art-Speak, Portsmouth’s cultural commission. The works were installed around the city over a two-week period in May for public viewing through August. The final two works, a banner on the parking garage and a sculpture on Portsmouth Public Library’s lawn, were set up late last week.

The large banner, called “Dialog,” by artist Susan Schwake of Artstream Studios in Rochester, depicts the silhouettes of two birds communicating across a leafy plant. Schwake said the Hanover Street Parking Garage needed some color, especially now that it’s nearing summer. The image is appropriate for the city, she said, where, from rooftop views, people can see many birds and vines growing up old brick chimneys.

“I think public art is valuable to our society as a visual documentation,” Schwake said. She said the work exposes people to current art. “It brings art to people every day, instead of special events in a gallery. They’re seeing it as part of the scenery,” she said.

Outside the Portsmouth Public Library on Parrott Avenue, Roger Goldenberg installed a sculpture inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, which he calls “Bookmarks for the Big Reader.”

Instead of flags inscribed with prayers, he made colorful pennants into abstract bookmarks. The sculpture moves in the wind and is intended to conjure the imagination and information books can offer.

Previously installed artworks include a multi-level bench, called “Umwelt Bench #5,” in Prescott Park, by Portsmouth resident Jason Probert. Constructed from various building materials, the geometrically shaped bench of building materials allows those sitting on it to view the park from different perspectives. It glows with solar powered lamps at night.

Also using solar power is the water fountain sculpture, “History in Liquid Motion,” at Memorial Bridge Park by Jeanne Givens of Rye. The materials are collected artifacts that are connected to the Seacoast. It pays homage to the strength and beauty of Portsmouth’s waterfront.

Deb Thompson, a member of Art-Speak and owner of Nahcotta art gallery, said Overnight Art celebrates the city’s new public art ordinance, which allocates 1 percent of the construction budget for any new municipal building or major renovation to works of art. The six artists were chosen out of about 30 applicants, and each chose one of 10 locations to display.

“It’s just a way to get people thinking about what art can be,” Thompson said. “Public art can be a bench or it can be a sculpture. It has so many applications.”

It’s interesting to see and hear people’s reactions, she said. The work that has received the most attention is probably the Giant Ant in the Market Square flower bed. Nathan Walker, of Stratham, made the sculpture primarily from salvaged metal, which he said replicates the exterior of an insect.

The sculpture was defaced by a local resident who allegedly climbed onto the ant and detached the head one drunken night. A court case is pending, but the head was repaired, reinforced with some extra pieces, and reinstalled on Saturday morning.  

Walker said he wanted to make a commonplace creature larger than life, causing people to pause and question their normal environment. “Going to a museum is great, but it’s limited. Public art brings the art to the people so it’s more democratic,” he said. “It’s in your space and it’s accessible.”

Walker recently altered his sculpture to make it a bit less accessible to potential vandals, adding spiky, metallic hairs to the ant’s thorax. He said the upside of what happened to his sculpture is the thought and conversation it sparked, as public art is intended to do.