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I like to work on different projects at the same time. One often inspires me to make a discovery in another area.'* The Hague artist Huub Hierck was in his element with variety and diversity. He made tapestries, paintings, plastics, reliefs and monumental sculptures. Working in a variety of disciplines also meant getting to grips with a range of materials, such as textiles, paint, copper, ceramics, steel, polythene and wood.

In the Zuiderpark is a sculpture by Hierck that is made up of geometric metal plates. During a renovation of the park in 2000, municipal employees found the work of art between the trees and bushes of a green strip that was to disappear. That is why this foundling was given a place near the large pond.

When exactly it was made is not entirely clear. But if you look at Hierck's smaller sculptures from the late 1960s, it could have been made in that period. A description of an abstract sculpture by Hierck in the hall of Shell-Gebouw Oostduin also points in that direction: 'As basic forms he used [here] the prism and the irregular quadrilateral.'* Hierck used exactly the same forms in the sculpture in the Zuiderpark. The whole thing balances on the tip of a pyramid, like a ballet dancer on one spit. Abstract, and yet the viewer can see a figure in it, standing on one leg, arms raised behind her and head lowered.

To earn his living, the young Hierck played in a jazz band. But that did not give him the pleasure of drawing and painting. Artist friends encouraged him to take lessons at The Hague Academy of Art. His paintings are in the collection of the Art Museum in The Hague, among others. Hierck became known, however, mainly for his work in public spaces, such as sculptures and wall reliefs, often in an abstract visual language.

*both quotes from 'Oil' (Royal Dutch Shell), October 1969