Slag is a waste byproduct of mining and metallurgy. In the production–and even recycling–of metal, slag is cast aside as a man-made lava in mountainous heaps.
Despite being seen as a waste, slag benefits from unique properties, and can be used as an alternative to cement—a ‘geopolymer’–with 80% lower carbon footprint.
In this collection, ThusThat has developed a variety of techniques with the scientists of KU Leuven to create monolithic black forms of varying scales.The series aims to negotiate a new functional and aesthetic appreciation for a material that is an inevitability of our future, as much as it is a trace of our past; alongside industrial era slag heaps that dot the European landscape are growing new slag mountains in the age of electricity and renewables. This project asks what this future landscape can offer.
The monolithic forms echo these slag heaps, textured by the hand-made process of forming in a way that mirrors the molten origins of the material. Each piece is joined with hammered copper surfaces that speak to the long heritage of copper-smithing that has disappeared in the age of copper wires and cables.