Owl House

[CorVdK]

On a cold winters' morning in 1976, at the age of seventy-eight, Helen Martins took her own life by swallowing caustic soda and crushed glass.

So ended the tragic life of a colourful character whose artistic vision and psychological depth went mostly unnoticed by her neighbours in the dusty, out-of-the-way Great Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda, South Africa.

The house of Helen Martins, the so called "Owl House", is a museum now. The spirit of Helen is still palpable, because everything is still there as she left it after her horrible death.

In those days, for the people of Nieu-Bethesda the house was a place of mystery and fear, a place which loudly disturbed the Calvinist calm and quiet of their town.

Although Helen Martins spent 17 years looking after her ailing and elderly parents. After their dead and abandoned by her husband she became increasingly reclusive and isolated from the local community. The relationship with the workman Koos Malgas became an affront to the burghers' sensitivities in the depth of apartheid.

Helen shied away from general contact and began transforming her house and garden.

Helen Martins' art was greeted with derision and suspicion from the village. Despite crippling arthritis, and the amputation of her small toes (her feet were disfigured from wearing narrow shoes) which left her unable to wear anything but slip-ons on her feet, Martins decorated her home with extreme colors, mirrors, crushed glass, selfmade objects and cement sculptures, especially owls.

Over about 12 years Helen Martins and Koos Malgas created from her imaginings the hundreds of sculptures and relief figures that crowd the "garden" and cover the walls of the house. Owls and camels - her favourite animals - predominate, but all kinds of real and fantastical beings are to be found. A procession of shepherds and wise men lead a vast, almost life-size camel train toward the east, integrating Christianity with Martins's fascination for the Orient.

In 1996 the Owl House Foundation was formed as a non-profit organisation made up of Nieu Bethesda residents. Martins's desire to be recognised as an artist is magnificently realised in the attention the Owl House receives, and in the fact that her artwork, once an object of derision and embarrassment, has become the most important asset of the village of Nieu Bethesda.

On a trip to South Africa in August 2009 my wife and I visited the house of Helen Martins.

March 2010 I made a documentary slide show of the visit.

Documentary: Owl House, 11:55 minutes. PTE 6.5.

Rather heavy download: 142.527 kb.

Aspect ratio 16 x 10, 1680 x 1050 pix.

I tried to give an impression of the art of Helen Martins. In the storyline there are a few anecdotes from the life of Helen Martins. A lot of effects and the rhythm of the music plays an important role (that was certainly the objective).

I am very sorry but the narration is in Dutch.

I hope you can enjoy it anyway.

With the kind permission of Bill, download from Beechbrook.Com: Owl House

Cor

[paulziets]

Cor,

An excellent production. Although I cannot speak Dutch, the smattering of Afrikaans I picked up from my school days in the neighbouring Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, allowed me to follow your narrative. Helen Martins will have been ostracised by her society in those days and therefore her art will have been too. I think you have handled the story in a sensitive way and the photographs do justice to her art. I can't recall the music which means that it blended well with the photography and did not overpower the storyline.

Thanks for posting the show.

Regards,

Paul Zietsman

[Lin Evans]

Hi Cor,

Very enjoyable and you did an excellent job with the narrative and music coordination. Though I don't speak Dutch, I was able to understand more than I thought I would. I noticed that Helen's writing and many of the objects in the home with text were in English. Not being that familiar with South African history, it rather came as a surprise to me.

It's often the case that artists are not recognized until after their death. It's too bad that Helen never lived long enough to realize her dream of recognition. She seem to be quite innovative - I noticed old "headlights" from some type of vehicle were used as "eyes" in one of her cement owls.

Thank you for sharing these memories with us!

Best regards,

Lin

[CorVdK]

Hello Paul, Hello Lin,

Thank you both for watching my show.

As a Dutch speaking person it's not that difficult for me to understand the Afrikaans language when people of South Africa or Namibia speak it slowly. It helps also to visit the region regularly.

Helen Martins was a person who wanted to live differently, in a time when that way of life did not correspond to the average citizen.

What's more, this small part of history took place in a more or less inhospitable area and in a small community.

Due to constant lack of money Helen took everything she could find to use in her art.

She was probably one of the first people in the region to do some recycling in the true sense of the word (probably without even realizing it).

I'm glad that you could appreciate the show anyway.

Cor

[Ken Cox]

Cor

to put her work in perspective -- the sealed beam headlights she used for eyes are +- 5-8" in diameter

ken

[David Porter]

Thanks for sharing the excellent show about Helen Martins and her amazing art. As somebody said, it is a shame she only got recognition after she has died.

I was really impressed with the technical aspects of the show and impressed by your use of Photoshop (I assume) and PTE. It gives us lesser workers and good idea what can be done if we keep perservering and learning. I did just think that very occasionally the animations got a little gimmicky but that didn't detract from the show and it would be nice to have a translation of the commentary.

[CorVdK]

-- the sealed beam headlights she used for eyes are +- 5-8" in diameter

Ken,

The beam headlights that she used for "the eyes of the cat" must be of a Volkswagen Beatle or van of +/- 1964.

Cor

[CorVdK]

Hello Mickp,

Thank you for watching my show and your comments.

If there must be some more people who are interested in the narration I have done in the show, I might consider a show in English.

It's just a tremendous lot of work, with a daily job to do I have to find the time (by the way, I don't like translator machines).

Cor

[coopernatural]

Hi Cor,

First off, excellent written piece on the Helen Martins story.

Watching this for the first time,I was a little put off with the amount of effects animations masks and zooms and colourizing treatment,

but glad I watched it another couple of times,as I did miss some things on the first viewing.

While the story is a sad one,there is humour shared between Helen's work and yours.

Excellent photography throughout and the atmosphere of the place came through.Personal effects make it almost seem like you are intruding.

It must have taken you an age to complete this and you should be very pleased with the results.

Well done,

Davy

[CorVdK]

Hello Davy,

Thank's for watching and your comments.

Indeed it's not always easy to cover a "piece of someone's life".

I'm glad that despite the Dutch narration the message came through.

I was quite impressed by the artist Helen Martins after the visit and afterwards I did some research.

To work on the sequences was a lot of fun for me and I learned a lot more about PTE.

Cor

[8321]

Hello Cor,

Not a comment about your excellent production on one of our famous artists.

AVG antivirus reports that it contains a Trojan. Are you, or anyone else, aware of this possible problem? I have read here that Norton can identify false positives.

Regards, Jeff

[Lin Evans]

Hi Jeff,

That's another "False Positive" from AVG - this crops up every so often, gets reported and AVG takes care of it in their next version. Too many people have already watched this show for the threat to be real. Which version of AVG are you running?

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Cor,

Not a comment about your excellent production on one of our famous artists.

AVG antivirus reports that it contains a Trojan. Are you, or anyone else, aware of this possible problem? I have read here that Norton can identify false positives.

Regards, Jeff

[8321]

Hi Lin,

Its actually a colleague, using 9.0.91. I am happy with Avira and nothing reported.

{Sorry, read the thread about antivirus software after posting this query.}

Thanks for the reassurance.

Jeff

[CorVdK]

Sorry Jeff for the false positive with AVG on the computer of your colleague.

But he can be sure that there is nothing wrong with the .exe or that there is any harmful trojan in the AV.

Maybe he can temporarily disable AVG when he wants to see the AV.

Thanks for watching.

Cor