HIVE Show

Gallery North, Hailsham August 11 – 25th July 2026

Barrage Balloon II (oil on linen, 12 x 12 cm)

The harmonious functioning of a beehive serves as a powerful metaphor for collective achievement. Hive marks Blue Monkey Network’s fourth group exhibition, continuing a tradition where each iteration evolves through collaboration between our core members and the local gallery network. As a member of Blue Monkey Network, I am delighted to exhibit two of my barrage balloon paintings at Gallery North, in Hailsham, East Sussex.

Extract from my talk given during the HIVE show

"These two oil paintings, Barrage Balloon I and Barrage Balloon II, were inspired by my childhood growing up near the Cardington Hangars in Bedfordshire. Cardington is the home of British airships. It’s where the R101 airship was built in the 1930s, and during World War II, it became the main site for manufacturing barrage balloons. By the time I was growing up in the 1970s, many of those balloons had been re-purposed as weather balloons, so they were a familiar part of my skyline. Seeing these strange, floating forms overhead felt completely normal then, although looking back they seem incredibly surreal.

I’ve returned to painting these balloons on and off for many years because they combine my interest in personal memory and collective history. There’s also something strangely otherworldly about them that continues to fascinate me.

For this exhibition Hive, they felt especially relevant. During the war, barrage balloons were deployed in swarm-like patterns above major cities. They formed a defensive network that forced enemy aircraft to fly higher to avoid strategic targets. Their effectiveness didn’t lie in any single balloon, but in the strength of the swarm—much like a hive, where the collective is stronger than any individual. I liked this idea of exploring the tension between individual vulnerability and collective strength.

I started to shift my initial focus from painting groups of balloons to isolating a single balloon. As I worked on Barrage Balloon II, the form gradually became more cocoon-like. By cropping it off from its original whole barrage balloon composition and suspending it against an empty background, it became more ambiguous—fragile, vulnerable and almost organic. Similarly, Barrage Balloon I is isolated and distant, its shape becoming almost insect-like. By removing these balloons from their original military context, they become less about warfare and more more ambiguous—something that feels fragile, vulnerable and almost alive." Susan Hamer July 2026

The online Hive show can be found on the Blue Monkey Network website here.

Images below, from top to bottom: Barrage Balloon (Oil on canvas board, 9 x 9 cm), Room 3 in Hive show, Hive Show talk.