Exhibition:
Critical Edge #5
Handbag Factory Vauxhall
22.05-26.05.2025
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These works are inspired by Charles Green, Britain’s most famous hot-air balloonist. In 1836 he set off from Vauxhall Pleasure Garden in his balloon ‘Royal Vauxhall’, flying overnight to Nassau, Germany. On a subsequent flight he tied the parachute of Robert Cocking to his balloon, to drop him from high above. The parachute tragically failed, turning Cocking’s lifelong dream into his death. The incident gripped the public imagination, inspiring numerous engravings of Cocking captured mid-fall.
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This work also draws from the broader history of ballooning and its early ties to military operations. From high above, balloonists could observe enemy movements and pass that information to troops on the ground—an early form of aerial surveillance. Today, satellites and drones serve a similar purpose.
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Why is it that humans want to go up in the sky—seeking height in fragile vessels, chasing dreams and disaster alike? To rise is to risk falling—but the pull upward remains.