Origins 20-ft concrete chicken on egg

Athens, Georgia, United States

Public art

✓

Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Origins is a 20-foot-tall concrete sculpture of a chicken on an egg outside the Athens-Clarke County Extension office in Georgia. Local artists David Hale, David Harrison and Peter McCarron made it in response to an open call for public art.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Origins 20-ft concrete chicken on egg

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Approximate location · 33.941° N, 83.371° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Origins puts a very old riddle in front of a county office: a 20-foot concrete chicken stands on top of an egg. In Athens, Georgia, the sculpture greets people who visit the Athens-Clarke County Extension office, according to the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, which reported on it in November 2021.

Local artists David Hale, David Harrison and Peter McCarron designed and built it in response to an open call for public art for the new county building, the university reported. Flagpole, in February 2022, said the work was funded through the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, which requires 1 percent of new-construction budgets to go to public art, and that such projects are coordinated by the Athens Cultural Affairs Commission.

Flagpole described the construction in some detail. After a concrete foundation was poured, a framework of pressure-treated lumber was bolted to the footing, with a centre tower of four 4-by-6 posts skinned in plywood to form the contours. The skeleton was wrapped in plastic, layered with expanded metal sheeting and covered with a special concrete mix. Hale stained the surface and painted a pastoral scene of rolling hills in a concave circle on the egg's side, and McCarron made a metal weather vane depicting a sun and moon. Athens-Clarke County's public art page says the work was dedicated on 8 January 2022.

McCarron told the university the piece is about "longevity, going back to our roots, and how we rely on nature to teach and sustain us", and that the artists wanted "to inspire wonder". McCarron told Flagpole it touches on agriculture and sustainability.

The sculpture stands in front of the Extension office at 275 Cleveland Road, a county government building, and Athens-Clarke County's public art page lists it there.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Origins stands outside the Athens-Clarke County Extension office, a government building, according to the county's public art page. It is a freestanding outdoor sculpture.

ACCESS

The sculpture is outside the UGA Extension office, 275 Cleveland Road, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, a government building. Flagpole in 2022 located it outside that office.

COMMUNITY