Crossing Into
Crossing Into is a series of works, which combine a variety of images and materials to illuminate the legacy of colonialism in Malawi. Mitchell has utilized a fabric called ‘chitenje’ cloth that she collected from a village in Malawi where her extended family lives. The women use these fabrics as clothing and for many other functions in domestic life. These cloths bear the traces of their extensive use and are imbued with a life–force, which Mitchell sought to honor in the work. The history and spirit in the cloth is used as a counterpoint to images from the Victorian Era, which are printed and drawn on top or emerge from behind through the rents in the fabric. The intention is to create an ambiguous relationship between what the fabrics represents and the symbolism of the images imposed upon them. This bonding is used as a metaphor for the complicated and painful history of colonialism in Malawi. In this work, a reference to the past is used as a means to contemplate current issues and future developments in Africa.
