Pink shoes at a Party, 2023, is an end of the night image; of spilled drinks and sore feet. An image of exhausted glamour; of Barbie-pink stilettos kicked to the edge of the dancefloor. The text PORNOGRAPHY PEDDLERS repeats in the image, suggesting and enhancing the hallucinatory end-of-night pall.
The photograph was taken at a birthday party in February 2023, themed for the television drama The L Word; ‘In a basement of some pub somewhere in Euston where I danced till 3am’.
In Matić’s world, it is often in this personal space of friendship, family and joy that broader issues are raised and explored – privileging and queering intimacies, partnerships and pleasure as modes of survival.
Eager for representation and for interruption, Matić’s practice spans photography, film and sculpture in a meeting place they describe as ‘rude’ – a state of existing in/between. Matić often takes their departure point from dance and music movements such as Northern Soul, Ska and 2-Tone, drawing on their rich iconography to queer and re-imagine the intimacies between West Indian and white working-class culture in Britain.
Installation shot: upon this rock, South London Gallery, September 2022. Photo: Andy Stagg. Courtesy: The artist, South London Gallery, London and Arcadia Missa, London
Rene Matić (b.1997, Peterborough) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include upon this rock, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna, 2023; upon this rock, South London Gallery, London, 2022; soul time, Studio Voltaire, London, 2022; in spite of, instead of, Quench Gallery, Margate, 2022; flags for countries that don’t exist but bodies that do, Arcadia Missa, London, 2021.
Matić’s works are in several prominent collections including Tate; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Government Art Collection; Arts Council Collection; South London Gallery; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol; University Arts London Collection; Deutsche Bank Collection.