Glass Angels: a VR piece set in the Owl House, Nieu-Bethesda

Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape

The Owl House

Helen Martins (1897–1976) was born in Nieu-Bethesda, a small village in the Karoo. From about 1945, after her parents died, she spent more than thirty years turning her house there into a work of art, with cement, mirrors, coloured glass and wire.

Crushed glass covers the walls and ceilings of the dining room, sitting room and Long Room. Mirrors cut as crescent moons, a sunburst and hearts hang in the rooms, and coloured glass fills the windows.

Behind the house is the Camel Yard: hundreds of cement-and-glass sculptures of owls, camels, peacocks, pyramids and people, many of them set in a procession towards “Helen's Mecca”.

She made them with Koos Malgas, a sheep-shearer and builder, who worked with her from 1964 until her death in 1976. They designed the sculptures together and he did the cement and glass work. In 1991 he came back to restore them. He died in 2000.

Why it needs help

Fewer people visit. 11,255 people came in 2022/23. In 2024/25 it was 9,139.
No state support. The Owl House Foundation, which runs the museum, gets no government funding.
The sculptures are wearing out. They have stood in the open in the Karoo for almost 50 years, and the older cement is a concern.
Koos Malgas was long left out of the story. For decades the house was presented as Helen Martins's work alone. In 2008 Jeni Couzyn and Julia Malgas published Koos Malgas, Sculptor of the Owl House.

Sources: The Owl House Foundation and its annual reports, Wikipedia, Mail & Guardian.

Our answer

What Glass Angels is

Glass Angels is a VR piece about the Owl House and the two people who made it. It is part lesson, part artwork, and you walk through it in a headset.

Julia Malgas opens the story, speaking from the moon over Nieu-Bethesda. Koos Malgas, she says, is “my grandfather. But I just call him Pa.”
She hands you a lantern, and you carry it through the dark house.
You light the candles, and the crushed glass on the painted walls glitters as each one catches.
The owls on the stoep wake as you come close: their glass eyes light one by one.
The radio plays news from the apartheid years. Pick up Helen's letter and you hear her voice.
A whisper draws your eye to the sun painted on the kitchen ceiling.
You end on a white plain among four Camel Yard sculptures, 3D-scanned by Global Digital Heritage, and hear Julia's account of what happened to Helen and Koos.

Headset: Meta Quest 3 and 3S
How you play: Seated or standing
Moving: Raise the lantern or use the stick. No teleport.
Status: Free, non-commercial prototype

See it

Work-in-progress captures from the editor, not the headset. The painted wall is shown fully lit so you can see the colours; in the piece it stays dark until you bring light.

The Owl House at night, with a row of lit candles on the sand leading to the front stoep

The stoep: a glass-studded owl on the wall and cement sculptures behind chicken wire

The sitting room by candlelight, with a painted ceiling and teal and yellow walls

A sitting-room wall painted red, orange and turquoise, with two doors and a sideboard, shown fully lit

Shards of glass catching the light in the dark

An open book on a table between two lit candles, with an old radio behind it

The kitchen at night: shelves of tins and jars, and candles on a round table

A painted sun with green eyes and multicoloured rays

Close-up of a candle burning inside a lantern at night

A winged owl-camel sculpture on a white plain, with three more sculptures in the distance

Julia Malgas, who speaks to you from the moon at the start.

Julia's opening narration, 35 seconds, with sound and captions.

Team

Cast: Julia Malgas as herself; Wendy Mollink as Helen Martins
Writer and Director: Jason Mollink
Producer: Lebo Leitch
Worldbuilder: Dale P. Deacon (aka deaconline)
3D Artist and Asset Production: Hylton Rodel
Music Composer and Sound Designer: Dustin van Wyk
Poster Artists: Kiara Braum; Nuha Suliman

Funded by

Prototype notice and attributions

This prototype has been created as a non-commercial cultural and educational initiative for research, development and public engagement. It is presented as a work in development and is not currently intended for commercial sale or exploitation.

The full project is being developed as an educational and cultural experience centred on the history, people and stories of Nieu-Bethesda.

3D models

“Winged owl-camel with ruby nippled woman” by Global Digital Heritage and GDH-Afrika, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Decimated by XR Native (polygon count reduced).
“Shepherd holding lambs - Owl House” by Global Digital Heritage and GDH-Afrika, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Decimated by XR Native (polygon count reduced).
“Baby - Owl House” by Global Digital Heritage and GDH-Afrika, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Decimated by XR Native (polygon count reduced).
“Sideways seated Helen - Owl House” by Global Digital Heritage and GDH-Afrika, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Decimated by XR Native (polygon count reduced).

Each model has been modified by XR Native: Decimated its polygon count. The original is provided as-is, without warranties. Inclusion of this model does not imply endorsement of XR Native or this project by Global Digital Heritage or GDH-Afrika.

Sound

“cluster chord reverb.aiff” by bevibeldesign, Creative Commons 0.
“Dissonant Choir Rise 001” by MeijstroAudio, Attribution 4.0.
“Dissonant Choir Rise 002” by MeijstroAudio, Attribution 4.0.
“Psynte” by keplar, Attribution 4.0.

Help us finish Glass Angels

Glass Angels is a working prototype. To finish it and show it to more people we need funding, partners, places to exhibit it, and heritage organisations to work with.

If you can help with any of these, write to us here. Your message goes to Dale Deacon at Worldbuild.io, who will reply by email.