Hey Monte Schlacko, Dear Slagorg
In Hey Monte Schlacko, Dear Slagorg, Susanne Kriemann looks at how plants grow in landscapes damaged by industry.
She focuses on a slag heap—an artificial hill made of steel waste—in the German town of Siegen. Moss, wildflowers and bushes grow here, slowly taking back the land. These small plants become the main characters in her large artwork. Kriemann also used AI (artificial intelligence) to create images that mix industrial waste, plants, and archive photos. The result is a new, imagined creature: “Slagorg”—a word made from “slag” and “organism.” It shows how nature and human destruction are connected. The work invites us to think about what life can become in places marked by pollution and industry, and how plants might adapt to a world shaped by humans.
