The Many Uses of Shale

In anticipation of a fracking-related exhibit opening at the Storefront for Urban Innovation this Friday, we asked the artist about what prompted her to start turning Marcellus Shale into coffee cups.

Shale flakes at the bottom of an outcropping in the Marcellus Formation. Credit: Jennie Shanker

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While working on a project in the Catskill Mountains, Philadelphia-based artist Jennie Shanker wanted to learn more about the growing political and environmental debate over the practice of fracking. So she turned to the abundant reserves of shale in the Marcellus Formation, where many fracking companies have started to drill for natural gas, to see what other uses she could get out of the rock.

Thus began the Marcellus Clay Experiment, in which Shanker documents her discoveries while using shale as a material in her ceramic work. Her dive into the world of shale also serves as a platform to unpack the social, economic and health concerns that have affected communities concerned about drilling for natural gas.

Shanker’s experiment will be the subject of an installation, Shale Play, to open this Friday at Next City’s Storefront for Urban Innovation in Philadelphia. In anticipation of the opening, we got Shanker on the phone to talk a bit about what prompted her to start turning shale into coffee cups and why adequate information about fracking is so hard to come by.

Next City: You’ve written that you first got interested in shale when you were working in the Catskills in upstate New York. What prompted you to actually start collecting shale and using it to make coffee cups and the like?

Jennie Shanker: Up in the Catskills, driveways are red. I mean, there’s so much shale, it’s sort of the bedrock there. When I started meeting people and hearing more about what was going on with the gas drilling and fracking, I just assumed that that red shale was Marcellus shale. And one day, after there had been some rain, I noticed in the puddles there was mud that I recognized as clay. I talked to my ceramicist friends, and learned that they use shale to make really resilient ceramics like bricks and exterior tiles and things like that.

So I gathered the stuff up and found out that I could use it as clay. The first idea that came to me was to make a cup out of the shale. It addresses the issues surrounding the water contamination problems, where — if you’re holding a cup, it’s made out of Marcellus shale and there’s water in it — you have to think about if it’s really safe to drink out of. All of the issues are in direct relation to your body all of a sudden, which makes them much more real and much more present.

NC: You found that working with shale was safe, but what sort of response did you get when you first started handing people mugs made out of this material?

Shanker: The first time I got the cups out into the public was at Temple Contemporary, which is a gallery at Tyler School of Art [at Temple University]. It was a presentation there. The gallery director was distributing these cups initially as part of an event that he put on called the Big Shale Teach-In. After that, he would give the cups out during Mondays when he gave out free coffee to students and faculty, and it became an opportunity to start a conversation about what this is.

NC: Your project directly addresses public safety concerns associated with fracking, though you wrote on your blog that your understanding of why fracking is dangerous changed after you spoke about it with scientists. Can you explain how your outlook has changed?

Shanker: Before I started working with scientists, and particularly the geologists at Temple, I was really only getting information from one side. I wasn’t exactly sure where they stood, but I was learning different things from them. For instance, they believe that fracking can be done safely, and that it’s more of a regulation problem, a government problem, than anything else. That’s one perspective I hadn’t even heard before — I just thought, “this stuff, there’s no way it can possibly be safe.”

How [fracking] might cause earthquakes was another thing they discussed. They said of course it causes earthquakes. When you set off an explosion underground, the ground is going to change, but degree to which it changes is sort of insignificant unless you’re working along a particular weak geological structure, which can be dangerous. There were other issues where there were more subtleties to the argument that have to be considered.

NC: It seems like you found that the dangers of fracking lie in the process, and the lack of regulation.

Shanker: The problem has more to do with what’s happening above ground than what’s below ground: Things like spills, things like what happens with the trucking, what happens with water wells. A lot of the contamination of wells isn’t occurring where the frack is happening, which is way, way down deep. It’s happening much closer to the surface where the well casing starts. And all of that has to do with how well those things are built, how much oversight there is, what kind of materials they’re using — those sorts of issues.

NC: Before I helped edit a previous story that we ran about fracking in Ohio, I hadn’t even known about things like injection wells and the earthquakes they can cause. Why do you think information on the subject is so muddled?

Shanker: It’s very clear that the industry is trying to [keep it muddled]. An obvious example was the resistance to talking about what kind of chemicals are in the fracking fluid. People in the medical community in areas where fracking is occurring are saying that it’s really important for us to know what’s in that fluid, so that we can address some of the problems we’re beginning to see. And when [fracking companies] are still refusing to do it, or when they release information and it’s not adequate, it’s obvious: Why hide something if there’s nothing to hide? They’re putting a lot of effort into nondisclosure.

NC: Here in Pennsylvania, fracking has the support of the governor, a lot of people with the state and many different local governments, and it seems likely that the practice is here to stay at least for now. Do you see a future where fracking can happen safely — or at least safer — and cleaner that it does now?

Shanker: I’m told that that’s the case but I don’t think that will happen with this governor. But I do hope that’s the case. I do think it will be hard at this point — we’re still deep into it, and there are communities that have absolutely been changed by it. I don’t know if you’ve been out where this stuff’s going on, but these are areas that don’t have anything else. Now that it’s already there and established, it’s going to be hard to pull away from it. But it could certainly, with the right kind of leadership, work in ways that could make it significantly healthier for the workers.

Next City will host an opening reception for Shale Play on Friday, May 3, from 6pm-8:30pm. Jennie Shanker will be on hand to discuss and answer questions about her work.

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