Matty Rimmer: So Excited to Finally Meet You

Matty Rimmer's new exhibition So Excited to Finally Meet You explores the commodification of coral, and how fragments or ‘frags’ of coral are organised, colour coded and price tagged on display racks in flat aquariums. This example of organisms manipulated by capitalism displays the exploitation of a system of power built on the legacy of Phillip Henry Gosse, hailed as the ‘inventor of the [European] aquarium’, who advanced humankind's dominion over water, fish and coral. The exhibition invites viewers to critically reflect on how living organisms are problematically rendered to objects of desire.

Matty makes sculptures with polymorph; a re-moldable, inert and biodegradable thermoplastic, used to replace cartilage in the human body/cartilage tissue engineering. In this installation the polymorph is pigmented with neon colours that are illuminated by artificial UV light which, as a symbiosis of animal and plant cells, coral needs to photosynthesise in captivity. This mirrors a trend in reef aquariums, where UV light is used to enhance coral’s colour.

Matty’s work reflects his interest in the abundance of plastic in the Anthropocene and questions dominant narratives about toxicity and harm. Plastic toxicity is changing the current ideology of nature, as it occupies every living organism and ‘natural’ space. As an intersex person with silicone prosthesis, being a polymer host is familiar, and queerness and the futurity of plastic are inextricably linked, as demonstrated by Heather Davis. This necessitates the use of bioplastic in his work, and doing so helps to reimagine it as a site for otherwise possibilities, potential new (queer) futures and emergent ideas about nature and the climate.

Opening

Join us for an opening on Friday 4 October, 6pm - 9pm.

Artist Bio

Matty Rimmer (he/him) is an artist living in Glasgow, who makes succulent, vibrantly coloured sculptures and drawings. At the moment he is thinking about the relationship between queerness and plastic. Recent exhibitions include Pet Rock, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2023), Biotopes, Galoshans Festival, Inverclyde, 2022, Pink Stomping Boots, London LGBTQ+ Centre, London (2022), First Outing, Abingdon Studios, Blackpool (2021); Air Diving, 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow (2021); Growth, The GoMA, Glasgow, (2020); and Viridescent Epiphyte, The Briggait, Glasgow (2019).