The Owl House is a small but important museum in the small village of Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is a work of outsider art created by Helen Martins between 1945 and 1976. Driven to despair by the dullness of her daily life, she took steps to transform her world with light, colour and texture. Miss Helen was a retiring figure in the village, who employed local labourers like Koos Malgas and Piet van der Merwe to help her construct her Camel Yard which she filled with sculptures of bottle-skirted hostesses, mermaids, camels and pilgrims, all journeying to a mystical east. Miss Helen’s imagination transformed humble materials such as cement, glass, mirrors and wire into a secret, magical world that she shared with few, drawing upon Bible stories, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Orient, and everyday objects – all of which blended to create a personal cosmology.

Refences:

- Graaff, A. 2017. The Owl House, 2nd ed

- Ross, S.I. 1997. This is my world.