Karice Mitchell

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Karice Mitchell, "take care II," 2021

archival inkjet print, mounted on Plexiglas, 40.64 x 60.96 cm. Courtesy of Artist.

Karice Mitchell is a Toronto-born, photo-based-installation artist whose practice uses found imagery and digital manipulation to engage with issues relating to the representation of the Black femme body in popular culture and pornography. Historically, the sexuality of Black women and femmes has been central to their abuse, exploitation, and oppression and continues to be systematically constructed and controlled through the white gaze. By reappropriating Black femme erotic imagery, Mitchell reclaims Black agency and subverts history, reimagining the possibilities for Black femme sexuality outside of the weight and constraints of hegemonic, Eurocentric standards and historical constructs. The title, take care, gestures to the importance of carving space for Black women to take care of themselves while acknowledging a collective history. Through enacting care, healing can be fostered to imagine empowering possibilities for existence. In take care and Untitled (Woman in Gold), Mitchell represents Blackness and Black femmehood and its pure expression as a true site of resistance. Mitchell’s photographs also reflect the multiplicity and fluidity of Black womanhood. Mitchell’s works acknowledge the historical legacy of the racist white gaze on the Black female body in an attempt to subvert it and give back power to the Black women whose embodiments have been policed and abused by the white gaze.