Images of Hackney Marsh

David Rees, The Mitigator

A collection of Lea Valley-themed paintings by David Rees is on show at Pages of Hackney this month.

These works on paper have been completed over the last two years, as the Lea Valley has been re-imagined under the influence of 2012 Olympics. Earth is torn, shifted, mounded and smoothed, new steel and concrete rises – a surgical procedure on the land which onlookers fear may result in the patient’s death. Trees and copses are destroyed and new trees and copses are planted. But this has happened before. Railways, canals and electricity sewage treatment, flood defences were all built here in previous eras. The artist looks at the re-creation of the River Lea, sees echoes of history and records the feeling of familiar places being changed.

David Rees was born in London, lives in Hackney and has worked as an architect. He has known Hackney Marsh for 20 years.

Images of Hackney Marsh
Pages of Hackney
70 Lower Clapton Road E5 0RN

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Saturday: 11am-6pm
Sunday: 12-6pm