rebecca shapass
slag study (for this third century)
slag study underscores notions of re-enlivenment using stop-motion animation while also proposing alternative methods of mapping multifaceted landscapes.
Part of an ongoing body of work titled this third century, rebecca shapass’ research-based project centers on Brown’s Dump, one of America’s first industrial reuse sites, located in Pittsburgh’s West Mifflin borough. Now home to several shopping centers and the carcass of what was once the third-largest mall in the world, the landscape has been drastically reshaped over 150 years of mining, industrial dumping, excavation, and construction.
While the broader project delves into themes of empire, extraction, and human progress, slag study examines how human interventions, specifically the accumulation of industrial waste, dynamically reshape contemporary landscapes. Unfolding as a cartographic exploration of slag—the molten, steel byproduct whose cooled, volcanic-rock-like form composes the mountainous hills of Brown’s Dump—shapass weaves photographs from historic aerial land surveys, railroad maps, and newspaper images, with microscopic imagery of slag and documentation of the site today. The topographic study features text sourced from her research that evoke historical contexts and poetic consequences of material movements.
About the Artist
rebecca shapass is a filmmaker and artist investigating documentary form and archival practice. Her work has been exhibited with institutions and festivals including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Microscope Gallery (Brooklyn), Knockdown Center (Queens), Miller ICA (Pittsburgh), Antimatter [media arts] (Canada), amongst others. From 2018-2019, she was a Smack Mellon Studio Artist & Van Lier Fellow in Brooklyn. In 2023 she received a Creative Development Award from the Heinz Endowment. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and a BFA in Film & Television from New York University.