The Owl House - Anne Emslie

Nieu Bethesda is a small, dusty village in the hills of the South African Karoo, not far from Graaff-Reinet and the plains of the Camdeboo. It was here, in a dwelling known as the Owl House, that the artist Helen Martins was born and spent her childhood. As a young woman she later returned to the house to care for her aged parents, and after their deaths she continued to live there.

It was at this stage in her life, during the 1950s, that she began radically to alter the interior of the house and to transform the yard into a sculpture garden. Eventually the transformation of house and yard became so dramatic that it could be experienced as an integrated environmental artwork.

Helen Martins expansive and eclectic vision embraces numerous cultural and religious sources, and the Owl House is not a simple space to understand. It was the inspiration behind Athol Fugards play The Road to Mecca and it has become a popular off-the-beaten-track tourist stop-over, par-ticularly since attaining national monument status.

In the seventies Helen Martins Miss Helen, as she was known in Nieu Bethesda found that her sight was beginning to fail, a grim reality she struggled to accept.

Finally, in 1976 she took her own life by drinking caustic soda. The Owl House remains a testimony to her vision.