Leo van Oudheusden The Black-tailed Godwit on the Egg (1971)

This work The black-tailed godwit on the egg Artist Leo van Oudheusden created this sculpture in the early 1970s, when he was heavily involved in commissions for schoolyards in Rozenburg, which he conceived as environmental design. As a sculptor, he placed a bronze statue of a godwit at the center of the project. The somewhat abstract bird sits on a white concrete egg, standing upright. Three other white eggs lie in the grass around the godwit. The shells surrounding the egg suggest the young bird has just hatched. The theme aligns well with a preschool and/or primary school, where children grow up. This work was designed as a play area and originally stood in a sandbox on a schoolyard, but was later moved to this location near De Phoenix primary school. Playground equipment in the form of a seesaw was also added at a later stage.