Glass Angels

Glass Angels title card. Stone lettering over two painted glass tiles, a sunburst and a blue moon.

Glass Angels is a VR piece for Meta Quest 3 and 3S, set inside the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda, a small Karoo village in the Eastern Cape. You walk through the house at night with a lantern and light it candle by candle. Fifty-nine of them. As each one catches, the crushed glass on the painted walls glitters.

Helen Martins spent more than thirty years turning the house into a work of art with cement, mirrors, coloured glass and wire. Koos Malgas, a sheep-shearer and builder, worked with her from 1964 until her death in 1976. They designed the sculptures in the Camel Yard together, and he did the cement and glass work. For decades the house was presented as hers alone.

Julia Malgas, who calls her grandfather Koos "Pa", hands you the lantern. Wendy Mollink is the voice of Helen Martins. The rest you find by candlelight.

Why now

Visitor numbers at the Owl House fell from 11,255 in 2022/23 to 9,139 in 2024/25, and the Foundation that runs it gets no state support for running costs. The sculptures have stood in the Karoo for about fifty years.

Role

Dale P. Deacon is the worldbuilder. Jason Mollink wrote and directed it, Lebo Leitch produced, Hylton Rodel did 3D art and asset production, and Dustin van Wyk composed the music and sound. Funded by the Gauteng Film Commission, with WeAReVR, Worldbuild.io and XR Native.

Status

A free, non-commercial prototype. The team is looking for funding, partners, places to exhibit it and heritage organisations to work with. The support form goes to Dale.