A film by Suky Best
Sound Mixer Mike Wyeld

Four scenes each just over a minute long showing a collage of filmed owls placed on top of a scene from a British film of the 1940s (This Happy Breed, 1941). In each scene owls appear and disappear.

These are the birds that live in the house. An ordinary house where you, or I, could live. When no one is looking they appear, becoming visible in the empty spaces.

These are the real inhabitants.

They have always been there.

There since the space was enclosed by bricks; displaced from their trees, resentful.

Living in the walls, the cracks between, having a life amongst us. In moments of despair they can become visible to us, but we don’t notice.

When the house is empty they come out to play.

When our backs are turned they help themselves.

Camouflaging themselves against wallpaper, merging with the patterns, in control of their opacity.

Eating cake, biting at the backs of chairs ill tempered and bad mannered.

Always angry, they change the space just by being there.

If you don’t believe me, perhaps you just haven’t looked hard enough.

Suky Best