So it was with great attention to detail that 176 Prince of Wales Road in the midsts of Chalk Farm, London became the resting point for Anita Zabludowicz. Pushing aside arts steady relationship to the east of London and shifting the telescope a few steps north. The trend for displaying art within the construction of a white space falters sporadically, leave aside the hard feeling of concrete beneath foot and enter the tide of the past. Wooden floorboards and high romantic ceilings shelter a circular mezzanine level with abstract splendor. The building is the history of the space, its sounds and feelings, the greeting columns which push up wards steady an impressive resume towards the Parthenon in Rome or indeed the Parthenon in Athens. Hinting at what could have dwelled within the space but again not in any way getting near the reality of how 176 came to exists on a residential road in Camden.
To get back to the entry point of 176 would be to recognize the work of John Wesley. In the 18th century John Wesley took the infancy of Methodism and introduced it to the boroughs of Camden and Islington, settling in the area just as the Huguenots had done to the east. Like what had come before, Wesley looked towards nesting his approach to Methodism within a borough and within that borough - a building. Crafting his sincerest thoughts and hard work John Wesley looked towards these great symbolic structures of Rome and Athens when forging his church, stone grandieur made for momentary pauses in church design as well as an unbeknown umbilical link to its current manifestation, up the stairs and through the doors it is hard to define how Zabludowiczs space could have possibly been a place of worship, but equally as remarkable the reality that whilst a place of worship its future lay in the striving need to display contemporary art. The characteristics of the building manage to whisper towards those felt by The National Museum, brooding and suspicious, the columns and stairs march the visitor from street level up into sanctuary. Religion and culture so in-exptricably linked, one could not have formed for the removal of the other. The signs seem to point towards a shift in the area, negating the Wesleyan Methodist movement for something all the more radical. Asking the borough of Camden to produce a more revolutionary gesture so as to by-pass the swell of the city and become of its own meaning and making. It is true that for many years now the North London borough stubbornly asked for the inventive and the creative to pass through and down its murky streets; plonking on an old wooden piano at the end of a bar, smoking on a cigerette surrounded by shouting laughter and the sound of an old man singing. Stop in the street of Camden today and there is a fierce combination of tired tourism and slacking rebellion. So how did the church gain its place so close to one of the capitals loudest communities, infested with problems and tired of the woes of existence it is almost incomprehensible that a place of such thought and composure ran the gauntlet of time to remain a place for thoughts made and ideas discussed. It is true that one of the many incarnations for 176 was that of a drama school, Drama Centre London helped practitioners also move from one moment of knowledge to a greater moment, educating budding young actors to BA level and beyond. Hold on though, to associate origin with the currency of the now through a building is to lay claims that there may be greater things at work, That the building is responsible for what happens, away from those who may procure it. Zabludowicz may have found the place to her pleasing, but would it be too spiritual to romanticize that the building may actually have found her?
Between 1864 and 1920 the voice of German sociologist was conjuring up nightmares that lead to the continued exploration of a western currency of condition, Max Weber not only forged some of the most relevant social theory of our day but he maintained the pertinent existence of something still not quite understood; he declared through his thinking that the arrival of Capitalism was almost as spiritual as the choice of Zabludowicz. Not to get carried away with the relationship a building has to its necessary outputs and inputs. Religion is something which must be approached carefully as not to make for a religious reading but to equally be able to ‘read’ religion. It’s complication is still the unauthorized formatting programme which fruitfully holds the realms of our own civilization, fighting the fierce trend to side-step religion and declare it useless, whilst also claiming through a shrugged shoulder the null-and-void mentality of religion is not just extreme Marxism but possibly a poor mans diet when trying to digest the wonders of how and why it is we came to manifest the sociological passage of our presentness. The actuality is far more entertaining and verocious, the shifts in patterns of thinking and understanding explore shifts in the placement of religion from one of near-governmental proportions to something a lot more idiosyncratic, indeed within United Kingdom protocol it is more and more the case not to want to be actively religious, not to find a place for a practice of religion but to actually systematize religion out of the attitude to life in favour of a passage of personal progression, that, or humanity just lost the need to believe. Either way it just simply isn’t the current trend to declare Christianity as it may have been so very recently. Religious ritualization has not only slipped from our ‘to-do-list’ but it has also vanished from the necessary requirements by which to exists. Something which commanded such structures as 176 to be built, with such wit and enthusiasm, left to ruin with half a roof, the slip from religion to capitalism is interesting but where did it leave culture? The hard stones that ‘shroud,’ to use a neo-religious concept, 176, make for an almost naturalistic gallery space, especially one to explain the vast and expansive collection of Anita Zabludowicz. To remain true to the gesture of this conundrum it is important to shift back to the time and making of 1905, sketched away in a dank cell, or so I like to envision, the world of Max Weber expressioned a landscape which looked towards a shift from Protestantism to Capitalism. True, Protestantism is not the making of Methodism but neither is John Wesley, who may or may not have had a strong over seeing hand in the production of 176. The shift here is more obvious than first recognized, it is the timely thought that Protestantism is the structural God father for a Methodist ethic. That Methodism formed from the ideas of Protestantism, this helps the case even more.
Explorative devices would now bring into view the hinge of 176, the move it made from a religious moment to its current incarnation as a resting point for the visibility of art. What the conundrum outlines refers back to the device formulated by Weber, one which declares a dramatic sociological shift from a civilization ‘shrouded,’ to use that word again, or maybe even governed by religious zeal to one equally shrouded by a capitalist zeal. The comparison between both approaches bears an unsettling resemblance. The possibilities to explore such ties between a religious practice and one of capitalism are a lot more unsettlingly multiple than it first may seem. It is this kind of discussion which is of interest when debating the passage that a building undertook to arrive on the surface of the world and how it managed to, 142 years later actually re-main on the surface of the earth, it is impressive that it has managed to attract such a diverse and altogether more ambitious approach, not left the ruin of another derelict obsession. Saying this, London is no minefield for derelict fetishism, there just simply isn’t enough room. Take for example the fascinating re-vamp of the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, an 11 acre site which uses the best exploits of capital alongside the more identifiable conditions of art. Shoreditch’s Tea Building based on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road looks towards the new development of the East London Line, it doesn’t just declare its attitude for re-invention by being within the heart of Londons ever-changing east end, it manages to stipulate the tide of change ocuring all around the place, banks turned into bars, post offices turned into fashion studios and in the case of fashionable space Village Underground, tube carriages transformed to become office spaces. Shifting this back to 176, it is not the clarity of the swiftness from religion to culture which is of massive interest to this debate, but the ideology that something really hasn’t changed all that much through this passing. To rephrase the inevitable it may be too ad-hoc to remember the passing of religion within this country as something so naturally elective, Weber would remain there standing and nodding stating the ever clear moment which looked toward the formation of capitalism from the seeds of protestantism, not just that, but from the very nature of what was happening the moment capitalism arrived, in that everything was happening, life was as life was, back in the tide that washed ashore during the past governed by religion. Equally a western civilization at the mercy of capitalism could be further more the revelation when comparing the mixed uses of a building situated within the off-beat tracks of a tired out borough. It doesn’t just swell with history but manage to become part of it, the grade II listing of 176 helps to relinquish a time passed and a dawn awoken. Traversing religion towards capitalism, dedicates to the theory of Weber more rightfully than is first resolved. That each and everything had to be in its right place for a place to be made of 176. Could culture be the transitory hobble drawing together the immense hitch-hike taken by the building, or is it more likely to be like religion and the drama school just another matter of moment. The fascination is what is next to come, where does a building with 142 years of cross-generational manipulation go from now, what can be shifted and what can be re-built, how can our civilization move into something beyond capitalism and even further away from religion, I don’t have the answer to this, but ask the building, it might.
To get back to the entry point of 176 would be to recognize the work of John Wesley. In the 18th century John Wesley took the infancy of Methodism and introduced it to the boroughs of Camden and Islington, settling in the area just as the Huguenots had done to the east. Like what had come before, Wesley looked towards nesting his approach to Methodism within a borough and within that borough - a building. Crafting his sincerest thoughts and hard work John Wesley looked towards these great symbolic structures of Rome and Athens when forging his church, stone grandieur made for momentary pauses in church design as well as an unbeknown umbilical link to its current manifestation, up the stairs and through the doors it is hard to define how Zabludowiczs space could have possibly been a place of worship, but equally as remarkable the reality that whilst a place of worship its future lay in the striving need to display contemporary art. The characteristics of the building manage to whisper towards those felt by The National Museum, brooding and suspicious, the columns and stairs march the visitor from street level up into sanctuary. Religion and culture so in-exptricably linked, one could not have formed for the removal of the other. The signs seem to point towards a shift in the area, negating the Wesleyan Methodist movement for something all the more radical. Asking the borough of Camden to produce a more revolutionary gesture so as to by-pass the swell of the city and become of its own meaning and making. It is true that for many years now the North London borough stubbornly asked for the inventive and the creative to pass through and down its murky streets; plonking on an old wooden piano at the end of a bar, smoking on a cigerette surrounded by shouting laughter and the sound of an old man singing. Stop in the street of Camden today and there is a fierce combination of tired tourism and slacking rebellion. So how did the church gain its place so close to one of the capitals loudest communities, infested with problems and tired of the woes of existence it is almost incomprehensible that a place of such thought and composure ran the gauntlet of time to remain a place for thoughts made and ideas discussed. It is true that one of the many incarnations for 176 was that of a drama school, Drama Centre London helped practitioners also move from one moment of knowledge to a greater moment, educating budding young actors to BA level and beyond. Hold on though, to associate origin with the currency of the now through a building is to lay claims that there may be greater things at work, That the building is responsible for what happens, away from those who may procure it. Zabludowicz may have found the place to her pleasing, but would it be too spiritual to romanticize that the building may actually have found her?
Between 1864 and 1920 the voice of German sociologist was conjuring up nightmares that lead to the continued exploration of a western currency of condition, Max Weber not only forged some of the most relevant social theory of our day but he maintained the pertinent existence of something still not quite understood; he declared through his thinking that the arrival of Capitalism was almost as spiritual as the choice of Zabludowicz. Not to get carried away with the relationship a building has to its necessary outputs and inputs. Religion is something which must be approached carefully as not to make for a religious reading but to equally be able to ‘read’ religion. It’s complication is still the unauthorized formatting programme which fruitfully holds the realms of our own civilization, fighting the fierce trend to side-step religion and declare it useless, whilst also claiming through a shrugged shoulder the null-and-void mentality of religion is not just extreme Marxism but possibly a poor mans diet when trying to digest the wonders of how and why it is we came to manifest the sociological passage of our presentness. The actuality is far more entertaining and verocious, the shifts in patterns of thinking and understanding explore shifts in the placement of religion from one of near-governmental proportions to something a lot more idiosyncratic, indeed within United Kingdom protocol it is more and more the case not to want to be actively religious, not to find a place for a practice of religion but to actually systematize religion out of the attitude to life in favour of a passage of personal progression, that, or humanity just lost the need to believe. Either way it just simply isn’t the current trend to declare Christianity as it may have been so very recently. Religious ritualization has not only slipped from our ‘to-do-list’ but it has also vanished from the necessary requirements by which to exists. Something which commanded such structures as 176 to be built, with such wit and enthusiasm, left to ruin with half a roof, the slip from religion to capitalism is interesting but where did it leave culture? The hard stones that ‘shroud,’ to use a neo-religious concept, 176, make for an almost naturalistic gallery space, especially one to explain the vast and expansive collection of Anita Zabludowicz. To remain true to the gesture of this conundrum it is important to shift back to the time and making of 1905, sketched away in a dank cell, or so I like to envision, the world of Max Weber expressioned a landscape which looked towards a shift from Protestantism to Capitalism. True, Protestantism is not the making of Methodism but neither is John Wesley, who may or may not have had a strong over seeing hand in the production of 176. The shift here is more obvious than first recognized, it is the timely thought that Protestantism is the structural God father for a Methodist ethic. That Methodism formed from the ideas of Protestantism, this helps the case even more.
Explorative devices would now bring into view the hinge of 176, the move it made from a religious moment to its current incarnation as a resting point for the visibility of art. What the conundrum outlines refers back to the device formulated by Weber, one which declares a dramatic sociological shift from a civilization ‘shrouded,’ to use that word again, or maybe even governed by religious zeal to one equally shrouded by a capitalist zeal. The comparison between both approaches bears an unsettling resemblance. The possibilities to explore such ties between a religious practice and one of capitalism are a lot more unsettlingly multiple than it first may seem. It is this kind of discussion which is of interest when debating the passage that a building undertook to arrive on the surface of the world and how it managed to, 142 years later actually re-main on the surface of the earth, it is impressive that it has managed to attract such a diverse and altogether more ambitious approach, not left the ruin of another derelict obsession. Saying this, London is no minefield for derelict fetishism, there just simply isn’t enough room. Take for example the fascinating re-vamp of the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, an 11 acre site which uses the best exploits of capital alongside the more identifiable conditions of art. Shoreditch’s Tea Building based on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal Green Road looks towards the new development of the East London Line, it doesn’t just declare its attitude for re-invention by being within the heart of Londons ever-changing east end, it manages to stipulate the tide of change ocuring all around the place, banks turned into bars, post offices turned into fashion studios and in the case of fashionable space Village Underground, tube carriages transformed to become office spaces. Shifting this back to 176, it is not the clarity of the swiftness from religion to culture which is of massive interest to this debate, but the ideology that something really hasn’t changed all that much through this passing. To rephrase the inevitable it may be too ad-hoc to remember the passing of religion within this country as something so naturally elective, Weber would remain there standing and nodding stating the ever clear moment which looked toward the formation of capitalism from the seeds of protestantism, not just that, but from the very nature of what was happening the moment capitalism arrived, in that everything was happening, life was as life was, back in the tide that washed ashore during the past governed by religion. Equally a western civilization at the mercy of capitalism could be further more the revelation when comparing the mixed uses of a building situated within the off-beat tracks of a tired out borough. It doesn’t just swell with history but manage to become part of it, the grade II listing of 176 helps to relinquish a time passed and a dawn awoken. Traversing religion towards capitalism, dedicates to the theory of Weber more rightfully than is first resolved. That each and everything had to be in its right place for a place to be made of 176. Could culture be the transitory hobble drawing together the immense hitch-hike taken by the building, or is it more likely to be like religion and the drama school just another matter of moment. The fascination is what is next to come, where does a building with 142 years of cross-generational manipulation go from now, what can be shifted and what can be re-built, how can our civilization move into something beyond capitalism and even further away from religion, I don’t have the answer to this, but ask the building, it might.
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