Eric Eley drogue

September 6 to October 13, 2024
Artist’s Reception, First Thursday, September 6, 6 to 8pm

Link to images from the exhibition

“A drogue is an apparatus employed to slow and stabilize descent, whether through the atmosphere or down the face of a wave.  It is simple in structure and small in relative scale, but its effect can represent the difference between success and failure.

“Fear limits me more often than I’m comfortable admitting.  In response, I’m attracted to stories of grand feats and utterly unfamiliar situations that seem to contain a window to the sublime.  The group of work in this exhibition grew from research into the act of falling, both intentional and otherwise, with a focus on the purposeful. I’m interested in the tension between control and release, the intersection of fear and progression, and what is physically simple, but psychologically daunting.  What structure is necessary to fall spectacularly and have a reasonable expectation of being intact when you land?”

–Eric Eley

On a day in August 52 years ago, Captain Joseph Kittinger (USAF) made the last of series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps in a rocking chair position from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons. Towing a small drogue parachute for initial stabilization, he fell for four minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 miles per hour before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet. He set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. That record, while being challenged, still holds today.

Eric has been balancing a fear of falling, which may lead to failure or may lead to death, with a desire to allow himself to fall: to be open to letting go and letting the moment take him, whether in his artwork or in his day-to-day life. The works in this exhibition draw on this predicament as he hand-makes minimal structures designed to fall while providing a modicum of stabilization.

The series of paintings titled Ever upward, refer to the name of Kittinger’s mission: Project Excelsior (Excelsior is Latin for “ever upward”). The paintings are based on photos shot by Kittinger during his descent back to Earth.

The three Target Drift drawings are imaginings of maps: hand-made documents of terrain and topography, a kind of diagramatic bird’s eye view in preparation for a jump into the void.

This is Eric’s third solo show at Platform and it includes new drawings and sculptures. His most recent solo exhibition in Seattle was in 2011 at Suyama Space and his work has been included in group shows in Dallas, TX, Cologne, Germany, Mesquite, TX, and Chula Vista, CA. He holds an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and is currently teaching at Richland College, Dallas, TX.