Beth McAlpine

Isikhova – Owl in Zulu

Whilst creating this piece I was meditating on our relationships with animals and the planet and how misunderstanding has left to such destruction of them and their habitats. Owls have such a bad rap and yet they are such a mythical and mysterious bird – they play a pivotal part in ecology and yet they are vilified and killed when in fact they could solve many problems in rural and semi urban areas of South Africa challenged with the proliferation of rats.

I tore up a print which I had made of another misunderstood animal – the Painted Wolf, into small pieces which I then pasted onto the bird. The print was made on Awagami Washi a strong but also delicate paper, representing those two aspects of the owl.