Rene Matić Celebrates the Art of ‘Rudeness’
The artist – who is being shown at Frieze London this year – discusses framing identity and memory in their commissions for Deutsche Bank
The artist – who is being shown at Frieze London this year – discusses framing identity and memory in their commissions for Deutsche Bank
‘The contradiction of power is like… heaven to me,’ says Rene Matić in this video. They are specfically referring to the double-sideness of flags, but it could apply to almost all their work. Matić repeatedly confronts and challenges their concepts and visual language of authority, dominance and credibility, not just in terms of the political or cultural, but the personal.
Matić often uses a basic point-and-shoot 35mm camera they found discarded in an empty studio space. The results can be tender and intimate – moments that can seem both casual and poignantly loaded with meaning and memories. In their recent commission for Deutsche Bank’s London offices, Matić’s guiding principles were ‘love and care and respect’.
A queer mixed-race Londoner born in Peterborough, Matić’s work often invokes the legacy of Jamaican-British ska and skinhead subcultures to address questions of Blackness, Britishness and identity more widely. In 2021, their work was acquired by the Tate at Frieze London, and is now on permanent display at Tate Britain following its major 2023 rehang. At Frieze London 2024, their work will be presented again by Arcadia Missa.
‘“Rudeness” is this celebration of in-betweenness,’ says Matić. Explore their work in all its rude glory in the video and at Frieze London 2024.
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Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October 2024, The Regent’s Park.
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