We have often written about the extraordinary projects of the Edinburgh Printmakers. It is a creative printmaking and visual arts centre in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh. The curators are known for discovering and nurturing great talent. Currently, until 17 September, they are presenting the exhibition WHAT A FEELING! | ACT I by the renowned artist Christian Noelle Charles. The artist grew up in an art-loving family. She counts Carrie Mae Weems among her great idols.'

For the design of the white cube of the gallery, she chose the ingenious theme of a colourful beauty salon. In it, Charles' artwork addresses themes of racial identity, inequality, caring and love through the Black Feminine Lens. According to the artist, salons and barbershops have always been a place for black people to find peace, surrounded by the community that always supports them. So she thought that staging a beauty salon would allow viewers from all walks of life to understand where the origins of her art lie. Charles also refers to the importance of salons in art history as social events.

Charles' fascination with the female body also played a role in WHAT A FEELING! | ACT I. The curves in her artworks were individually cut by hand before being produced as a stencil. For the artist, a personal reminder that each person is individually unique.

The winner of the John Florent Stone Scholarship describes printmaking, especially screen printing, as the foundation for everything she does in art now. Read the interview with this amazing artist.

31. August 2023

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Name: Christian Noelle Charles

Residence: Born in Syracuse, New York, USA. Based and Works between New York and Glasgow, Scotland

Education: The Glasgow School of Art, Master of Fine Arts, Glasgow, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Bachelor of Fine Arts, New York,

Universität Der Kunst Berlin, Berlin

Occupation: Artist

What is it like for you to exhibit with the Edinburgh Printmakers? 

It has been a surreal experience. Working with Edinburgh Printmakers first started by receiving the John Florent Stone Award with Edinburgh College of Art and it was in partnership with Edinburgh Printmakers. Since beginning with that residency, it rebirthed my love of printmaking, screenprinting. I had a pause during the pandemic and the lack of resources using printmaking facilities. But going into that residency gave me the entire space, the facilities to just go and print. I would say I made about 600 prints in 2022 and then about a collection of like 160 prints for the exhibition itself. Every single member of the Edinburgh printmakers staff would call me very prolific. They took that resilience and applied my kind of work and process to help me develop such an ambitious exhibition in their space. It really created something magical within their gallery and produced a “new way of seeing” (Nina Simone) of the prints.

WHAT A FEELING! | ACT I by the renowned artist Christian Noelle Charles.Exhibition

©Alan Dimmick

"I applied to everything just to see what happens. You’re always filling out an application for something."

You have exhibited and won a considerable number of awards at a young age. What was the process like to build something like this?

A good friend of mine before I moved to Glasgow gave me the biggest piece of advice that really stuck with me for a long time. “Life is an Application” I moved to Glasgow when I was 22 and you're really impulsive in your decisions then, so I applied to everything just to see what happens. You’re always filling out an application for something. Always filling out your name, date of birth, address and then writing details of what you want to do and how you want to build the project. Applying for everything wasn’t just a good practice of writing what I want but guaranteed exposure, and that’s essential for being in the art scene. By doing this, more opportunities would pop up that I would think were meant for me. And the ones I would get chosen for which is usually a 1/1000 chance you see why you were meant to do that residency, or exhibition as it fits with what you want to do. You just have to be open minded when you see something that you really like. You never know if it's actually going to fit your practice as an artist.

"I believe applications are writings of manifestation."

I believe applications are writings of manifestation because even if you may not get that residency, exhibition, or funding opportunity from a particular organization, someone is always watching and the universe is cultivating the right opportunity for you when you are ready. I am still processing having all of these accolades, sometimes I’m still thinking it's not enough because I am still growing. Especially now, just before turning 30. It's kind of bonkers. I am just grateful. And accepting the fact that applications are always gonna be a part of the journey.

Christian Noelle Charles GETTIN- READY MELE Courtesy the artist

"Salons and Barbershops were always that place of gathering and coming together for Black people."

Why did you choose the theme of the beauty salon in particular? Most of the works on your website also have a woman as their subject. 

I was raised in a very girly girl and feminine way. Since I was probably 11 years old, my mom always told me I had to dress up a certain way to validate myself into society. It wasn't like a debutant situation but when you think about a black woman trying to make it through in a white dominant ruled world. You're always trying to prove to yourself that you're capable of being up to the task of opportunities that are going to be given to you while at the same time just surviving a very racialized society. Salons and Barbershops were always that place of gathering and coming together for Black people, just getting some rest and peace being surrounded by the community that you're familiar with and who will always support you no matter what, no matter what capacity. I thought installing a beauty salon in a gallery would be an easy way for audiences from all walks of life to understand where I am coming from. An interesting hybrid for all audiences to understand, as we all go out, get ready, dress up. Look our best.

"In national galleries art is exhibited all over the walls, painted colored walls and in some cases covering each other."

It's also a pun for printmaking because in art paintings and prints were formatted in Salons. Salons were social outings in art history. Also there are colored walls in Galleries, especially the national galleries. In national galleries art is exhibited all over the walls, painted colored walls and in some cases covering each other. Seeing how "The Salon" is a term for a gathering, I feel putting my work in the modern context of a Beauty Salon invites you to look at prints in a unique way instead of just looking at big pictures in a traditional gallery. The Beauty Salon setting encourages sitting, relaxing and seeing the details of the colours that were developed within this work. Sitting, relaxing and seeing the details of the colors that were developed within this work.

I have always been attracted to the feminine body. I grew up in a dance studio. Since I was two years old I was constantly analyzing my lines and my figure for performances. It made me understand the concept of curves and use that to accept my form and figure. The curves in the prints are individually hand cut before being produced as a stencil and it cannot be repeated again. It is a personal reminder that everyone is individually unique.

Christian Noelle Charles GETTIN- READY Cass Courtesy the artist

You are from New York and live in Glasgow. Do you often travel back and forth?

Unfortunately, I only go back home once a year, usually during the holiday season, because that’s what I can afford. Luckily I was able to go during the pandemic as there were pockets where I could avoid lockdowns because people needed to see their families during holidays. But I feel like I've been in Scotland more than ever. I can say that I've now lived in Scotland more than New York in my entire 20s. Which I feel is insane to me and my family. I aim to be more back and forth in the future so I can support my family in New York and try to create a stronger artistic presence in the United States. But at the same time, I want to hold the community that I have here in Scotland because it's such an international conversation especially within the African diaspora. There's different types of black representation within Scotland that still need to be discussed, gathered and expanded upon. I would love to share those kinds of experiences and invest those times back in the States because I have been here for seven years and it's a deeper conversation than someone who travels and only just gets a glimpse of it for like a week or two for like during a holiday.

"Printmaking, particularly screenprinting, is the foundation for everything else I do in the arts now."

Since you combine painting, video and performance in your work, which element is art for you: the objects you make or the videos you make?

Printmaking, particularly screenprinting, is the foundation for everything else I do in the arts now. I have to print before I do anything in video or performance because it reminds me about the journey of producing a work and I personally find it as a reminder for patience and problem solving. In video, I specialize in editing and I look at the timeline on Premiere Pro as a stack, layers to place videos on top of. I play with the opacity on the program so much, obsessively to see if I can find a print/ painting in the video. It kind of changes how you can look at video art. Basically, you’re adding layers then compressing them into one video just like print. I apply that method to everything I do not just in my artistic practice but in life. As we are layered journeys, our families, communities, and ancestors are descendants of us of who we become as people. My family and friends and environments are huge inspirations in my work conceptually as these are elements that are applied to my personal journey and I reflect it in my work and document it as I share my story, As I share my work.

What or who aspires you in your work as an artist?

I have a mix of artists I grew up with. Carrie Mae Weems, with her work about black representation and the black feminine gaze. Her Kitchen Table Series is one of my favorite pieces of all time because it shows the sense of relationships and family and what the weight of how black woman handles herself within her contacts. I also love Tino Sehgal, a performance artist that develops, as he says ‘constructed situations’. His risk taking performances really encapsulate a space and makes it challenging for the audience. I love how he applies the relationships between performer and audience member. In terms of printmaking, I love lithographs by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Seeing what those posters represent of the Bell-L'epoque scene And those drawings are very supple and fluid to represent that sense of a woman's body. Even though it's from a white male gaze, it was kind of treated in a way of tenderness. Also the drawings and paintings of Matisse, with his lines. I was always attracted to the way he used curves in his drawings. I grew up with so many black female artists, I grew up with Faith Ringgold, Renee Cox, Senga Nengudi as artists who pushed the black female representation and how it should be in the forefront and the dominating presence. All of these artists no matter how big the capacity has been drawn to my work.

"That influence and energy of the community that I grew up with in New York is harder to find in Scotland. It was a pretty electric upbringing I was cemented with."

How did it happen in your life that you turned to art?

It never left. I grew up with a very artsy family. My mom ran a dance studio since I was two years old and ran it for 20 years. After school I would take eight dance classes a week as a child until I was 18. At the same time her day job was running an art gallery, The Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse, NY. I was surrounded by black art all the time. Faith Ringgold and Carrie Mae Weems had such an influence as their works were always exhibited in the gallery and acquired as well. And then my father was a radio DJ. He teaches African American music and broadcasting now. But when I was a kid he owned two radio stations, so I was surrounded by 90s and 2000s hip hop and R&B 24/7, plus my father ran so many music festivals like Jazz festivals. I saw Arethra Franklin and Smokey Robinson in person. That influence and energy of the community that I grew up with in New York is harder to find in Scotland. It was a pretty electric upbringing I was cemented with.  I feel my parents with their work it was inevitable that they were gonna have an artsy kid. They were praying for a kid interested in politics or medicine to help me up for the money. But once I said I'm going to art school they knew. They're super supportive right now and give me so much cheer for this exhibition. My upbringing is such a huge inspiration to my artistic practice and sharing my culture and upbringing in this exhibition and the Scotland community. I am so grateful.

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