REFLECTIVE JESTER: IT’S JUST A FEELING is Christian’s personal journey of self-love and an understanding of where her definition of self-love comes from. Divided into three rooms - representing definitive moments in her life and upbringing, each space is a direct connection to Christian’s discovery of her self-expression and performance.

Taking inspiration from Cab Calloway, American jazz singer, dancer and band leader during the jazz and swing eras of the 1930s-40s, Christian’s work and performance reimagines the lively, energetic exuberance of jazz legends such as Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt and Charles Mingus. This masterful improvisation of Christian’s will showcase new works that are developed around Christian’s personal journey and upbringing, growing up in a dance studio, specialising in African dance, modern jazz and ballet.

This project is an expression of self-love that considers the challenge of defining one's individual appearance, yet celebrates the moments of freedom that lies within the experience to move, and to encompass visibility as multiple beyond comprehensible, racialized and gendered representations.

It is was presented at the CCA Glasgow
17 September — 16 October 2021

THE CHANGING ROOM
The starting point is in The Changing Room, a space to prepare, to look at one’s face, put on make-up before a performance. We are introduced to Christian’s printmaking techniques and Christian’s selfies conveyed through the square frame of the familiar Instagram format. The space to understand her relationship to self-presentation, disclosure and authenticity is heightened by the exposure of our own reflection that reminds us that we are always self-evaluating, blended through an online space that reflects back.

A COLLABORATION WITH ZEPHYR LIDDELL
PHOTO DOCUMENTATION : ALAN DIMMICK
THANK YOU, ZEPHYR LIDDELL, BEN ASHTON AND PRINT CLAN

THE STUDIO
The main space, the Dance Studio, is a site of significance for Christian, who grew up in New York, in a dance school specialising in African dance, musical theater and ballet where she was taught styles such as the Katherine Dunham technique that brought Caribbean and African influences of movement and expression into classical ballet. In the video installation, Christian is rehearsing and performing, combining footage of dance recitals between 2008 to 2012 and building up these layers of improvisation and expressive registers with selfie dance videos accumulated from 2019 to present.

Videos
The 1st video is a video version of the dance mirror mural.

The 2nd Video features the music stylings of Taner Kemirtlek
Instagram: @tanerwave

The 3rd video Documentation of  a private dance class in the studio space.
Video documentation by Siri Black
Dance Teacher Mele Broomes
Pianist Taner Kemirtlek

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION : ALAN DIMMICK
THANK YOU, GLASGOW SCULPTURE STUDIOS AND THE WORK ROOM

GRANDMA’S HOUSE
The final room, Grandma’s House, is a representation of Christian’s childhood home in Queens, New York. This room is dedicated to her uncle, Alfred L. Henley aka Uncle Al who passed away last year at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Uncle Al, the life of the party, was a major figure in her family and an important presence in Christian’s life. Christian embodies the essence of her uncle through her wardrobe in the film. The improvisational character she presents is referent to the spirit and form of jazz in the lineage of legends such as Cab Calloway, Gladys Bentley, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt and Charles Mingus. The scat singing (improvised emotive, meaningless syllables sung to a melody) of Cab Calloway’s Wah-Dee-Dah and the Jester’s wild laughter become expressional utterances to understand aspects of Christian’s identity and presentation, woven through a family history embedded in each of the hand-picked furniture in the room.

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION : ALAN DIMMICK
THANK YOU, ALEX STOREY GORDON, MATTHEW ARTHUR WILLIAMS

THE JESTER
The presence of the Jester trails through the spaces of the CCA. The form of the Jester defined as a professional fool or clown, is instantly recognisable and familiar. Seen especially at a medieval court, its role has now evolved into the modern-day entertainer. The Jester relates to Christian’s experience as a performance artist and how categorisation has always been reductive and problematic, particularly in relation to Black entertainers. Christian makes this a critical feature of the Jester: how a lack of interest in the Jester’s depth, character and complexities is also indicative of the often oversimplified aspects of black life and its expressions. Referencing Nina Simone when asked what freedom meant to her, Christian’s dialogue on the defining of her individual expression, the feelings and recognition of constantly constructing and reconstructing herself, by looking through the mirror, through the eyes of others, through tradition and family history becomes also a question about a practice of improvisation and expression towards a radical affirmation of herself.

A COLLABORATION WITH HUSSEIN MITHA
PHOTO DOCUMENTATION : ALAN DIMMICK
THANK YOU HUSSEIN MITHA

 

A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO:
ZEPHYR LIDDELL, ALBERTA WHITTLE , BEN ASHTON, SABRINA HENRY, HUSSEIN MITHA , WINNIE HERBSTEIN, MATTHEW ARTHUR WILLIAMS, EMILIA BEATRIZ, ALEXANDER STOREY GORDON, MELE BROOMES , FRANCIS MCKGEE, PRINT CLAN, HOPE TRUST SCOTLAND, GLASGOW SCULPTURE STUDIOS , SOUTHSIDE CHIROPRACTIC,
BROADSCOPE STUDIOS , THE WORK ROOM, DISPLAY FRAMES, SCOTIA VISUALS THE GLASGOW COMMUNITY, THE CCA TEAM ,
THE CHARLES FAMILY
GOD