Rene Matić’s new show is a love letter to chosen families

For the last six years Rene Matić has documented the world around them in an ongoing photography series called flags for countries that don’t exist but for bodies that do. During this time, the London-based artist has amassed a vast archive of 35mm pictures amounting to a universe of preserved moments in time; a “heap of broken images” from which myriad tender stories emerge and recede from picture to picture. 

Matić’s latest exhibition at Chapter NY – their debut solo show in New York – marks the finale of this expansive series. kiss them from me is a constellation of images that may at first seem disparate but, as you contemplate them as a body of work, begin to take on the recognisably irregular shape and rhythm of life as it’s lived. In the artist’s own words, the show is “a love letter” to their family, “chosen and otherwise”. For Matić it’s been a year of “grappling with both love and absence”, and these qualities permeate each image, connectioning them together and creating emotional contours. From a photograph of votive candles lit in mourning for Brianna Ghey’s murder to friends at Glastonbury caught in the camera flash, Matić’s wife clad in latex, and a friend suspended forever in a moment in time as they celebrate of their birthday, kiss them from me is an epic story told in evocative fragments.

Below, we talk to Rene Matić about kiss them from me, the difficulties of sharing intensely personal images in public, and the vital importance of pausing to really look and be present.

Please could you introduce us to kiss them from me?

Rene Matić: kiss them from me is a show that marks the end of a photography series called flags for countries that don’t exist but for bodies that do that I started in 2018. It's nearly every 35mm photograph I've taken since picking up a camera. All the photos are taken in Britain, apart from one in this show which was taken in NYC. The series is really a love letter to my family, chosen and otherwise, as we make our way in this country that we have been burdened with. As time has moved on, we have moved along with it, and this year – after big life and relationship shifts – I decided to finish this letter and begin a new one.

“I have been grappling with both love and absence this year. Each image manages to hold both those very big, very real, very exhausting things” – Rene Matić

For you, what are the overarching narratives and themes that emerge from this body of work? 

Rene Matić: The theme is always looking – pausing. I used to think it was about place but I think it’s more about time. The time in which we are living but also what photography can do with time. It gives one a chance to live forever, but it also contains that life. When I am choosing images, I start at now and work my way backwards to create and understand a timeline. This show is mostly photos taken in 2023 but there’s a couple from last year and one from the year before. Each photo is almost like a consequence. Themes are given to me.

I love the untitled self-portrait. Could you tell us about how you arranged the exhibition in the gallery space and why you chose to position this picture on an opposing wall apart from the rest?

Rene Matić: That is my first untitled work. I always say it’s important to me that the audience remembered it was me looking first, like I am between them and the work. Having that piece at the opposite end of the gallery also means there’s a soft anger in that photo – an unsettled in betweenness. That’s how I feel.  

Your work always feels intensely personal. How does it feel to experience such private moments on display in a gallery space?

Rene Matić: It’s a real getting rid of…  once things are up [on the wall]. Every work is an attempt at giving something away, to rid the self of a feeling. But it is hard. I go through an intense grieving process after shows.

And do you ever feel a responsibility, as an artist, to make the personal public?

Rene Matić: I have a responsibility to myself to be honest with the work – whatever that means.

“I have a responsibility to myself to be honest with the work – whatever that means” – Rene Matić

What would you say is your guiding principle when it comes to making work?

Rene Matić: Presence is key. I’ve struggled to be present recently and the work has suffered because of that.

kiss them from me is such a beautiful title. Please could you tell us about where it came from/what it means to you?

Rene Matić: Thank you! It was really hard to title this show and then I realised I was texting it a lot to friends, asking them to pass love on to a loved one. This title is a kiss hello, goodbye and everything in between. It’s gentle. I am looking for gentle.

How does this exhibition speak to the ideas of love and absence?

Rene Matić: I have been grappling with both love and absence this year. Each image manages to hold both those very big, very real, very exhausting things. That's why I chose them. 

Rene Matić’s kiss them from me is running at Chapter NY gallery in New York until December 9, 2023.

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