Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Skye Jackson-Smith - Barn Owl







For the Research Methodology Unit, I decided to focus on the elusive Barn Owl.
I was drawn to studying the Barn Owl as I felt they tied in nicely with Shakespearian literature as owls have a reputation throughout the 15th & 16th century as being omens of death. 
I researched into the meaning/symbolism of the barn Owl in different cultures and they are mostly considered a sign of bad luck and quite frequently they are seen as a warning sign that someone is going to imminently die.
I found a reference to an Owl in Macbeth "It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman (2.2.5-6)" which supposedly relates to ringing of "the dead bells", which was a form of hand bell used in Scotland and northern England in conjunction with deaths and funerals up until the 19th century.
The owl is therefore referred to as the fatal bellman as it shrieked upon the murder of Duncan.

For my final piece I decided to design a Tarot cards to represent the fortune telling of the owl, I decorated them with silver & copper foil - one to represent night and the other to represent day.

No comments:

Post a Comment