Intersectional Grammar: Trees, Hackney Gallery, exhibition review: ‘Stop by this virtual forest’
Colin Buttimer (2024). Photograph: Colin Buttimer / courtesy Hackney Gallery
Did you know that this week was National Tree Week?
Well, the Hackney Gallery did, and they have put on an exhibition of about 20 photographic works with arboreal themes.
Intersectional Grammar: Trees is a group exhibition curated by artist Jacqueline Ennis-Cole.
The images on display reflect the different roles that vegetation plays in our lives and our cultures.
Gideon Mendel’s Tree Next Door. Photographs: Gideon Mendel / courtesy Hackney Gallery
In some cases, the connection between artist and natural world is very personal, whereas other pictures reflect social struggles, including the unsuccessful campaign to save the Happy Man Tree in Woodberry Grove.
We see trees in pristine woodlands, but we also see how they wind themselves around our houses, we climb on them and we carve our messages into their bark (to their detriment).
We start fires that burn them down; we choke them with the smog of our cities. And still they grow.
The most striking images capture the elegant forms of long-growing trunks, including the photos by Colin Buttimer, Frankie McAllister, Georgia Metaxas and Sabes Sugunasabesan.
If you happen to be passing by Lower Clapton, stop by this virtual forest and reconnect with the natural world.
Intersectional Grammar: Trees runs until 8 December at Hackney Gallery, 1A Lower Clapton Road, E5 ONS.