A Crown upon the Head: Owl

Janine Magilsen, 2020

Resin, eyeshadow, glitter

Dimensions variable

Created by the artist

Personal collection

The owl, in Greek mythology, is a symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, crafts and strategic warfare. This owl represents the future, a success, and a symbol of the wisdom of the people who listen to people that know better. With the chaos in the world today, understanding how wisdom is key, and listening to the people with the research behind them, playing the role that a person is qualified for is key.

The crown on the head is a reference to the gold glitter, that primarily sank to the bottom of the mould, covering the head of the owl in gold, and accentuating the piece of the cast that way.

With the current situation of COVID-19 developing every day, people are missing the one thing that we rely on right now: research. Information about this situation is not available, because it is a new virus that was not expected. We don’t have the information available to us, and we are relying on the bits that the media is giving us, which can cause miscommunication between the sources and the consumer, and this miscommunication can cause fear due to a misunderstanding. Without knowing how to track sources of images, understand political structures to know who is releasing these facts, confusion is rife. The best course of action is to use common sense, take a step back from the situation and ask, “Who is saying this? Why are they saying this? Where did they get their information?”

In a time where material objects are the subjects of suspicion for their interactions with the world around them, and the subjects of disinfection and sterilization out of fear, the things that can be trusted the most are the things that people create. The process of creating the owl is a mystery because of the opaque mould, and its not clear how the piece will turn out until the end of the curing process. Looking at how it relates to the situation in the world today, we are in the curing process, and we do not know how it will turn out in the end. So, until we know how it will turn out, we’ve got the chance to take a step back from the situation and understand it from outside: how did we interact with the events and how does that change the outcome? By learning and questioning information in a reasonable way.

Janine Magilsen