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Even Stillness Finds Company
May Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Sculptures”
Like a Sculpture, Still Not Alone
This sculpture is located on Bataviaplein in Lelystad, near Batavia Harbor in the Netherlands. It is titled Boven Water (translated as Above Water), created by Frisian artist Henk Hofstra in 2010.
I came across this artwork last month when our office group was on the way back from a visit to the Farm of the Future in Lelystad, heading toward the airport. We made a quick stop at the lovely Batavia Stad, and while the others were doing their last bit of shopping, I wandered off toward the water’s edge.
The bird beside the man wasn’t a permanent part. The sculpture stood quietly by the road, and as I walked closer and lifted my phone to take a picture, the bird suddenly flew in and perched beside him. The large white head looks surreal, but the bright blue eyes felt strikingly real. The man, standing on top and holding a suitcase, is actually life-sized.
When the bird landed, I wondered, did it think the sculpture was a real person? Did it come to offer company? To console him?
Later, I read online that the ground around the sculpture was originally painted blue to represent water, which ties to the name. But that blue has faded now, so for a first-timer like me, “above water” wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. That day, what I noticed wasn’t the meaning behind the sculpture, but a kind of quiet companionship the bird seemed to bring.
Maybe it’s nothing. Or maybe it’s just a small reminder: even when you’re still and silent like that weathered sculpture, someone might come and sit beside you. For a moment.
