Liggend

Liggend is a bronze sculpture by Dutch artist Maja van Hall-Blom, created in 1984 as part of Utrecht’s public-art landscape. A female figure lies on a rectangular stone. The roughly worked natural stone contrasts with the smoother bronze, giving the sculpture a clear tactile tension. Its pose suggests stillness. Van Hall-Blom uses a stylised, almost mummified body to explore immobility, struggle and powerlessness. The figure appears enclosed within its own situation. Liggend belongs to the artist’s early bronze works, when her human forms became larger, more abstract and less naturalistic. Human figures remain central to van Hall-Blom’s practice. Her sculptures vary in form, material and technique, while retaining a strong focus on the body and its limits. She studied sculpture in The Hague and Amsterdam before working and teaching in the Netherlands. Liggend reflects her interest in social themes through a body that seems trapped and unable to move. The sculpture’s bronze and stone unite physical texture with a restrained, human subject. Its public setting places this meditation on vulnerability within Utrecht’s changing collection of outdoor art.