‘in spite of, instead of’ - Rene Matić

January 22, 2022 - February 27, 2022

This intimate display of work by Rene Matić comprises new and old works and possessions from the artist’s archive. This assemblage of objects takes as it’s starting point a quote from Kathleen Collins’ book, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love,

What about the love of two human beings who mate in spite of, or because of, of instead of, or after the fact of

The artist returns to a 2020 video work, we give a lead to britain, which was filmed in Lambeth Town Hall as an homage to the ‘No Colour Bar dance’ that took place there in 1955. The dance saw 180 Black people and 180 white people brought together to dance in the name of integration. In this display, the film is brought into dialogue with personal artefacts that hold rich and romantic family histories. 

Other works in the show deal with interracial relationships, representing their nuances through images and objects that the artist has ‘collected and loved forever’. 

Two traditional 1950’s stacking chairs sit at an angle next to one another. One representing Matić’s Mum, the other their Dad. It is a staging of a conversation that never transpired but perhaps/definitely should have – what happens when you mix leopard print with bleached denim? 

A pair of coats once owned by the artists great grandparents stand as bodies in the room. Matić found the coats hanging in the separate wardrobes and households of their parents and decided to bring them together again here - to catch up - after 10 years of separation. Maybe they have advice on how to live and die together a thousand times.

An image of two singers caught slipping between space and time by a fan who’s seeing themselves represented for the first time is framed alongside handwritten notes and the comfort blankets the artist and their brother still use today. These scarves were once worn round the neck of their mother as she breastfed. The now knotted and hardened silk is reminiscent of the experience of having a mother who’s skin can provide both home and harm. 

 Inhabiting a body that perhaps wouldn’t exist without moments and stories like these, Matić revisits and makes visible the nuanced relationships that have gone before them.

 in spite of, instead of

before me and for me

and of me

and with me

coats bought and worn together

worn apart

the wrong conversations that happened

the right ones that didn’t

things that smell the same but feel different

rhythm you were born with

everything you were born with

everything you were born without

rummaging in draws

nose shapes, lip shapes

lipstick

always pink

never red

hand me downs

passing notes

passing out 

and all for us.

forever.

Rene Matić (b. 1997, Peterborough) is an artist, writer and poet based in London. Their work brings together themes of post-blackness, glitch feminism and subcultural theory in a meeting place they describe as rude(ness) – to interrupt and exist in/between. 

Matić’s research reaches back to post-war Britain with the survival tactics and ‘tap dances’ of Britain’s Brown babies. They take their departure point from dance and music movements such as Northern soul, Ska and 2-Tone, using them as sites to queer and re-imagine the intimacies between West Indian and white working-class culture in Britain.