The Owl House

Helen Martins

The Owl House is a museum in Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The house itself was inherited by a woman named Helen Martins (b. 23 December, 1897) after her parents had died.

Construction

According to sources, Martins became bored with her "dull" life and resolved to transform the environment around her, beginning in 1945 with an obsessive project to decorate her home and garden. Martins used cement, glass, and wire to decorate the interior of her home and later build sculptures in her garden, drawing inspiration from Christian biblical texts, the poetry of Omar Khayyam, and various works by William Blake. In 1964, she was joined in her work by a Coloured man named Koos Malgas, who helped her build the sculptures of owls, camels, and people (mostly pointing east as a tribute to Martins' fascination with the Orient). The relationship between Malgas and Martins drew considerable suspicion in the apartheid-era environment, while her work inspired derision and little support from the small-town locals.

Museum

Martin's longtime exposure to the fine crushed glass she used to decorate her walls and ceilings eventually caused her eyesight to start failing, leading her to commit suicide by ingesting caustic soda on August 8, 1976 at the age of 78. As per her wishers, the Owl House has been kept intact as a museum (managed by the Owl House Foundation founded in 1996). The house was declared a provisional national monument in 1991.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

Athol Fugard published a play in 1985 about the house called The Road to Mecca, which was later made into a film of the same name.

Gallery

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  One of the interior rooms with crushed glass on the walls.

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  Sculptures in the garden, most are facing east.

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  A large arch with an owl at the peak.

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  Close-up of one of the sculptures.

References

• The Owl House of Nieu-Bethesda
• Helen Elizabeth Martins Biography