BRISTOL.- A series of portraits exploring intentional love and its locality by artist Rene Matić go on display today at the Martin Parr Foundation. Matić’s diaristic portraits are of their friend, writer, performer and theatre-maker Travis Alabanza, documenting their developing relationship as it became “lit by a table lamp instead of a disco ball.”

Matić was commissioned by the Martin Parr Foundation to make a new series of work focusing on Bristol in 2022. Matić chose to use the opportunity to focus on and get to know their Bristol-born and based friend Alabanza. Before embarking on this project, Matić and Alabanza’s encounters had always been in clubs and on the dancefloor.

‘Many of the relationships that permeate the QTPOC (queer, trans, people of colour) community have been birthed in clubs and on dancefloors. They are relationships that exist when the room is always too loud to converse (with words) but you show up and you show out with concern and care together—even just for the night—until the next time.’ - Rene Matić

Matić began to explore moving that kind of relationship “out of the space(s) it grew and into other quieter ones”, such as domestic spaces, with the hope that it would survive and flourish beyond the dance floor. The project became an opportunity for Matić to show that Alabanza —as a performer—existed beyond the lights of a stage or a dancefloor. They wanted to show that those who perform to survive both financially and politically need to rest backstage —as being still is something both Matić and Alabanza are rarely afforded.

As the project developed Matić and Alabanza met in Bristol and London as often as their schedules allowed. Matić’s photographs show their journeys from cafes to book launches, fry ups with friends, and the domestic times in-between.

‘what I am learning – through this project and just life in general – is how brave one must be to let someone get to know them.’ - Rene Matić

The title of this show references a bell hooks quote which reminded Matić of the first phone call they and Alabanza had together where Travis confessed to being a ‘homebody’.

“I’m such a girl for the living room. I really like to stay in my nest and not move. I travel in my mind, and that’s a rigorous state of journeying for me. My body isn’t that interested in moving from place to place” – bell hooks.

‘We were excited to discover Rene’s work and started to think about the idea of Rene shooting a project in Bristol and what this might look like. In 2022 we gave them a carte blanche to pursue any subject of their choice for this commission, so long as there was a Bristol connection. In ‘a girl for the living room’ Rene has found a way of capturing and expressing their relationship with Travis Alabanza, a Bristol-born and based artist and performer.’ - Martin Parr

Rene Matić (b. 1997, Peterborough) is an artist, writer and poet based in London. Their work spans across photography, film and sculpture in a meeting place they describe as rude(ness) – to interrupt and exist in/between. Matić often takes 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.

Recent solo exhibitions include upon this rock, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna, AT (2023); upon this rock, South London Gallery, London, UK (2022); in spite of, instead of, Quench Gallery, Margate, UK (2022); flags for countries that don’t exist but bodies that do, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2021); Born British Die British, VITRINE Gallery, London, UK (2021). Recent group exhibitions include WINK WINK, The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Rossendale, UK (2023); Divided Selves: Legacies, Memories, Belonging, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, UK (2023); Crowd Control, High Art, Arles, FR (2022); Queerdirect, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2022); Arcadia, Bold Tendencies, London, UK (2021); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery, London, UK (2021) and Friends and Friends of Friends, Schlossmuseum, Linz, AT (2020). Matić’s work is in several prominent collections including Tate, London UK; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR; UK Government Art Collection, London, UK; Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK.

Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol
'a girl for the living room' by Rene Matić
July 13th, 2023 - September 17th, 2023