egg one

The first egg was found in a place that can be rightfully described by having exactly the same distance to two other places. Thus the egg turns into the pivot point of a seesaw between them. The egg ties these places together without making it necessary for their inhabitants to ever meet. At the same time it must not be misinterpreted that the egg in its appearance seems to indicate a kind of direction. It has no inclination towards anything or anyone whatsoever. By changing its shell, it keeps growing out of itself.

egg three

The third egg was found in the brownish waters of a lake in times of drought. It will remain unknown why a descendant of the Roc has delivered his egg in the water. So far this seems to have stayed the only event of that kind. But it can be stated that the eggs have always been found in places that can be characterized as a connection of certain spaces. Considering furthermore that the children of the children of the mythical bird are able to change the vastness of the world's space, it becomes clear that they will act accordingly. So the watchful observer understands that the third egg was placed on the boundary of wideness and deepness.

egg five

n the sizzling sands of a sheltered corner of the land the fifth egg was found. It is well known that a whole range of animals appreciate the warmth and the easy looseness of the sands for their nesting places. These are mainly ancient species such as toads and crocodiles. Their history also reaches back into prehistoric times which can only be transmitted by stories. Drawing an analogous conclusion thus permits to almost take for granted that the descendants of the mythical Roc also know well about the advantages of hot sands.

egg seven

This unique surface can also be seen on the seventh egg found on the most northerly point of the Southern Island of New Zealand. The gentle ribs of the gleaming, skin-like surface of the egg have pushed back the rough and stony parts. Thus the egg seems to become part of the surrounding sand. This camouflage is yet balanced by its colour and its cool rigidity. As soft as the white sand trickles through the open fingers, as smooth and rigid the stony surface nestles into the hand.

egg nine

It is remarkable that the most recent finds have been made in areas where history has not yet acquired the meaning of the past. Eggs have been found where the traces of intrusion are still clearly recognizable or the intervention has not yet ceased at all. For example, the ninth egg was laid into newly solidified lava. Presumably the bird has known the ancient warmth of the movement within the Earth's core and has searched for it in order to keep its eggs alive. After bedding its egg between the fresh skin folds of the Earth crust on Hawaii, it could leave them with its mind at rest, because, like the egg, this place is young and ancient at once.

egg eleven

As friendly as the descendants of the Roc are behaving towards people as anxiously they guard their eggs from human presence. Only one egg came close to human influence without experiencing harm. It was found in Canada, at the boundary of water and a huge timber yard. It had been placed carefully on top of a caterpillar's chain that, on weekdays, bundles up tree trunks like matches. But on Sundays there is peace and quiet, retreat into deepness and wideness and therefore a possible place for a basalt egg. The one, who has left this rare object in this very place, must have known about the boundary between different times. Here people are not always present; here there are still recesses possible without them. For the few indigenous dwellers guarding the weekends are part of this land, like the trees and the cut logs. Thus, the egg can rest unscathed within this time window being enclosed protectively and therefore, retaining its sharp contours.

egg two

The second egg was found on the rails that connect Sydney with Broken Hill. The rails that point into the endlessness display the same blue-grey colour as the egg on its polished side. The two related colours merge and lead the gaze into a real but invisible space. This egg is also in a stage of metamorphosis which can be seen as one part of its shell being smooth, but the other showing the roughness of untreated stone.

egg four

The fourth egg has turned into a heavy object balancing on a vertical branch that looms in the barren landscape before a boundless horizon. It demonstrates how the once gigantic size of the egg of the ancient Roc has condensed into the weight of two handfuls of granite. The egg of the young Roc leaves grandiosity to the land and keeps the task of representing the ancient in the contemporary.

egg six

Distances shrink under the wings of the young descendants of the Roc. But at the same time they cherish the bequeathed knowledge from the times of the unexplored islands. Therefore they also know those areas the Maori knew already for their richness of food. That this knowledge is passed on by the children of the children of the Roc to their children is proved by the discovery of the sixth egg on the peninsula of Kaikoura. This egg displays an interesting change of shape compared to the eggs found previously. Its smooth surface is now wavy like sea and sand. It looks as if this egg has acquired a structure of camouflage.

egg eight

The eighth egg, the egg of Whakatane, has abandoned its structure of camouflage. Instead it is close to the water. It lies exactly on the boundary between the radiantly blue sea and the coarse and grey sand. Like a cornerstone it rests on the boundary outlining two spaces that cannot become one. And is it not the water that grinds sharp edged stones round? As such, in this place, with its stony rigidity and its silky smoothness, this egg becomes the symbol of this boundary, of its place.

egg ten

One is inclined to assume that it might be dangerous for these precious eggs to be laid in zones of human intervention. It seems to be especially dangerous when humans are likely to come close to them. Indeed, it was only once that an egg was found within a city area. And, as a matter of fact, this egg seems to have lost its presence and its weight. Apparently it was the only one of all the eggs found that was victimized by its habitat. It could only dissolve in the eye of the artificiality of human constructions.

egg twelve

The last known find was made in a geologically ancient part of Europe. The egg was left on the edge of a closed granite quarry in the Waldviertel. Beaming and curious it rests on the boundary to a rough deepness. The eggs of the descendants of the mythical Roc are objects of our time and finds in our contemporary world. At the same time they remain deeply connected with their mythical ancestors, yet would not be able to exist without them. They are here and there at once, hybrid beings. On the other hand, what stays the same in a quarry in changing times, if though the ground yielding its stones may be an ancient one? There have been times before it and now, closed, it is already disappearing again. Thus the quarry itself is young, but its place in the world is old. Insofar, the egg of the modern Roc is a young object with an origin deep in the fairytale past, delivered in a place whose meaning is currently dissolving again in history. So what can be named young and what can be named old? What is unusually foreign and what is intimately familiar? We argue that it is this ambiguity that guides the young descendants of the mythical bird in their search for places to leave their granite eggs. This is the reason why these objects seem to us concealed, and therefore, it needs understanding and intuition to find them. Insofar, the twelfth place has permitted us to come to a preliminary conclusion of our contemplation of the photographs. Further reflections are now left to the kind reader.