Fine Print Foot Print

Installation view of Carrie Iverson’s Dispossession series, 2018-2024 at the VRC Gallery, October 2024. Photo: Christina Childress.

Reflecting on printmaking as technology and artistry, utilized to mark, represent, commemorate, or investigate social events and actors, Fine Print Foot Print exhibition featured work by the head of UTA printmaking program Carrie Iverson, specimens from the collection of Forensic Applications of Science and Technology lab led by Patricia Eddings at the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and historic prints from UTA’s Wild Pony Graphic Studio. The exhibition was on view on September 30 – November 26, 2024 at the Visual Resource Collections Gallery and organized by UTA Fine Arts Collections Specialist Cheryl Mitchell and Visual Resources Curator Lilia Kudelia.

In the world of forensic science, collecting as much evidence as possible about the circumstances and context of the investigated event is critical. Creating specimens of footprints, shoe prints, tire threads, and other forms of trackable data is an essential part of this process. The exhibition showcased various techniques of making prints for forensics research that include traditional plaster casting, dental stone casting systems, fingers and foot impression kits, gelatin lifts, and Mikrosil.

Carrie Iverson’s works displayed at this exhibition import the printing logic into unexpected materials. She transcends mediums – from paper to glass to metal – like an event sometimes transcends time layers. Abstracted in many instances to an extreme, due to bleeding inks and surfaces eaten out by the acids, Iverson’s works testify about the points of contact – between the artist and her closest family members, the artist and the landscapes she traverses, the artist living in the present moment and dealing with histories being erased and preserved.

Parallel to this exhibition, Carrie Iverson also worked in the UTA Special Collections to research the archives of the Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls that operated in Arlington, Texas in 1903-1930. New prints were produced by Iverson for the exhibition during her residency at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM. The show also featured a limited-edition artist book with works by Carrie Iverson, photographs of the remaining cemetery site on the University of Texas Arlington campus, historic materials from UTA Special Collections, and curatorial essays.