Chloe Dewe Mathews

SUNDAY SERVICE

Located in small industrial estates, opposite railway stations, on busy high streets, in former office blocks and bingo halls, there are now said to be 240 African churches in the south London borough of Southwark, more than double the number of other types of churches in the area. Recent research by Roehampton University suggests that this represents the greatest concentration of African Christianity in the world outside of Africa.

Sunday Service explores the reinvention of architectural space in the urban environment, cataloguing a rapid shift from industrial to religious space, in this pocket of South London. The series combines portraits of people who use and have purposed the buildings, with photographs of the spaces themselves, which act like collaged records of a local history.

Sunday Service was commissioned by Tate Modern in 2013. The work was exhibited in the McAulay Gallery, Tate Modern, 28 May – 13 July 2014 and was accompanied by a free publication.