José Carlos Casado Mancha, Trace.v01, Trace.v02, and Trace.v03, 2023, UV print on laminated, tempered glass, and archival inkjet prints on paper with custom-made frames, IS 429, Queens​

Trace.v01 and Trace.v02 are site-specific artworks created by José Carlos Casado Mancha for the lobby and first floor corridor of I.S. 429, Queens. The printed glass murals evoke oversized smart phones or tablets with slick black frames and vibrant “screens” that nearly glow. Each shows an abstract composition made from layers of swooping gestures and scrawled lines. Resembling brushstrokes on a canvas, these marks are the result of the oil traces that fingers leave behind on users’ screens. To create the artworks, Casado Mancha photographed and collaged together fingermarks of middle school children left on smart devices and digitally painted the resulting high-resolution images. His artworks suggest the integration of smart devices in our everyday life and the digital trail that follows us wherever we go. It invites viewers to consider how conceptions of identity, connection, visual experience, and memory have been, and will continue to be impacted by our use of smart devices.

To compliment the larger glass artworks, Casado Mancha also produced Trace.v03, a series of six prints on paper with custom frames that hangs in the second floor corridor near the school’s library. These smaller artworks act like detail snapshots from the early development of Trace.v01 and Trace.v02, before the artist had digitally altered and colored his high definition photographs.