A rare view of a little girl watching the annual Airstream migration with binoculars.
This recently found historic document proves that Airstream travel trailers did once fly.
A wonderful relic of a future that might have been when the mighty Airstream travel trailer soared quietly overhead.
An icon of American design, the aluminum Airstream trailer. mid-century American road tripping comes courtesy of a 20-foot stretch of aluminum that resembles an oversized vintage toaster, gleaming and curvaceous – home away from home.
Early days of Airstream, Byam organized caravaning trips to Canada and Mexico, plus a Capetown-to-Cairo route in Africa and a journey in Asia that traced part of Marco Polo’s route.
Airstream trailers are revered as paradigms of industrial design, ranking with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Hamilton Beach blenders for fusing sleekness and smarts.
Before World War II, there were about 400 travel-trailer companies in the United States, including manufacturers of do-it-yourself kits. Airstream is the only survivor from that era.
Press Release on this series:
As a child do you remember looking up in the sky and seeing shiny aluminium streamlined travel trailers floating above the horizon? Maybe in Grandma’s photo album there was a Kodak Brownie camera snapshot of a family camping above the treeline in their new lighter than air Airstream travel trailer? No?
Artist Edward Fielding has re-imagined an alternative history in which the iconic American brand of RV, the always retro-futuristic aerodynamic Airstream camper was not only lightweight, cool, hip and portable but also able to somehow overcome the laws of physics.
In his new series, Fielding’s Airstreams fly over head water towers, float over the landscape and migrate south for the winter.
Fielding’s work hints toward the Steam Punk movement with its revisionist history of what could have been but an added element of the absurd. Indeed the Airstream campers have the suggestion that they could fly, their design directly descends from the aircraft industry, but surely gravity has to take over at some point, or are these hydrogen or helium filled vessels from the ages of the balloonists like the famous Montgofier brothers? Or perhaps a anti-gravity technology brought from the future by the likes of Dr. Who?
Steam Punk takes the notion of “What if”, steam power was the end all energy source. What if electricity and internal combustion were not invented. What would our steam powered lives look like today. Steam Punk imagines a wonder filled modern life as imagine by the science fiction writer Jules Vern with the Time Machine and 20,000 leagues Under the Sea. A modern age with a Victorian flair.
Likewise Edward M. Fielding re-imagines a world that never happened or hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps we are looking to the future. A future in which anti-gravity devices allow weekend warriors to pack up the family in the camper and head out over the trees in search for a soft landing and a bit of rest and relaxation. If so what better craft then the streamlined, shiny, space aged Airstream trailer? Designers Hawley Bowlus and company founder Wally Baum would be so proud!
See all of the Airstream artwork here – https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/art/airstream