Unveiled as part of the London Design Festival, an art installation composed of 2,000 ceramic tiles and incorporating industrial waste has been created to explore the hidden consequences of copper mining.
At the heart of the Madejski Garden at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), South Kensington, London, renowned visual artist from Poland Alicja Patanowska presents her latest work The Ripple Effect.
Two thousand small and uniquely crafted tiles, each created on the potter’s wheel by the artist’s own hand, come together in a flowing, field-like plateau to form a seating and material experiment installation, complete with a functioning fountain guiding water into the central pond.
Newly commissioned by the V&A, plus supported by both the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM) and the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the work forms part of the UK/Poland Season 2025.
Price of natural resource extraction
Created by incorporating industrial waste into the ceramic body, The Ripple Effect reflects on how every act of natural resource extraction carries environmental and social consequences. It also explores how each of us, as individual consumers, through our choices influences the shape the wave will take.
Inspired by Poland’s Żelazny Most reservoir, the work reflects the copper mining yield of just 0.4%. This ratio is illustrated in the installation, with only eight copper-coloured tiles scattered amongst 1992 blue ones.
By combining material experimentation with reflections on the climate crisis, artist Patanowska points to the potential of craft as a strategy rooted in attentiveness, and respect for materials, as well as the value in building relationships based on care and responsibility.
Circular material and water motif
The unique blue shade emerged by adding waste material directly into the clay, revealing the potential of re-use and giving the substance new life as ceramics. This recycling process, in which waste becomes part of a new ceramic mass, draws on long traditions of working with material — repairing, mending and re-using.
Both present in the installation and symbolically evoked through the colour of the tiles, water appears as a sign of life and strength animating matter, yet also as an element polluted and even stolen by industry.
On Earth its quantity is finite, circulating in an endless cycle, always returning, just like the consequences of our consumer, social and political choices.
The entire installation is encircled by a delicate copper ribbon, barely visible along the edges of the tiles, pointing to the value of both new and recycled material.
Circulation of all such material — like that of water — requires care and consideration.
The concept also echoes William Morris’s belief in craft to build social bonds and ethical meaning.
The work constitutes a call-to-awareness for consumers, says artist Alicja Patanowska:
“Companies produce what we buy. I encourage people to see resources as treasures — precious gifts of nature, as craft has done for centuries. Let us think of the world as one living organism.
“Our consumer choices shape this organism and carry lasting environmental consequences. I speak not from fear, but from awareness, attentiveness, and tenderness.
“We are all connected — to the Earth and to one another.”
Handmade waves and fingerprints
Each small tile, handmade with care, carries a sense of material value. The main plateau of the installation, measuring 6×7 metres, has an organic shape and two zones: an upper, almost level section reminiscent of a bench, inviting visitors to sit, lie down or touch the tiles; and a lower section, gently sloping towards the water, over which the fountain continuously flows, directing its stream into the central pond.
Every tile is incised with a linear wave-like pattern that invites touch and interaction. They are formed from cylinders thrown on the potter’s wheel, which Patanowska then stretches, cuts and places into moulds, preserving with virtuosity the rhythm created during the throwing process.
The wave-like grooves are imprints of her fingers left in the clay, underscoring both the human scale of handwork and the bodily dimension of making.
Aesthetically pleasing and thought-provoking
The Ripple Effect will be on view at the V&A, South Kensington, until the end of Frieze Art Fair (19 October 2025). The installation might be aesthetically pleasing, but it is also thought-provoking, says Carrie Chan, Contemporary Programme Curator, at the V&A Museum, who commissioned the piece:
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Alicja as part of our programme of projects exploring design’s response to crises and urgent issues. Alicja’s work poetically embodies her care towards matter, nature and water.
“The Ripple Effect invites visitors to pause and reflect on the consequence, poignantly engaging with the material waste and reimagining its future.”
On 19 September, during V&A Friday Late, Alicja Patanowska will guide a 5Rhythms movement meditation around The Ripple Effect — a chance to explore our connection to Earth and water through the body, as a craft. In addition, there are workshops to accompany the installation during its time at the museum.
Art in 40 cities across UK and Poland
The Ripple Effect forms part of the broader UK/Poland Season 2025, a diverse and extensive bilateral programme of over 100 multi-artform events taking place in 40 cities across both countries.
The Season is co-organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), British Council and the Polish Cultural Institute in London. Supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland, it celebrates the two nations’ shared values of innovation, creativity and cultural dialogue.
The 2000-tile installation itself serves as a symbol of collaborative and creative endeavour, says Paulina Latham, Head of Visual Arts and Music at the Polish Cultural Institute in London:
“Strengthening British-Polish creative collaboration lies at the heart of the Institute’s mission and the UK/Poland Season 2025. We are delighted to work with Alicja Patanowska, the V&A, the British Council, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute on The Ripple Effect – it perfectly illustrates how great things can happen when people come together.”
Ecology, material, and care
Alicja Patanowska is a visual artist and designer based in Poznań, Poland. Trained as a potter and holding a doctorate in the arts, she creates research-driven ceramic installations exploring ecology, material transformation, and care. Knowledge acquired in direct contact with clay is crucial for her practice, which often questions human-centred perspectives in relation to the world. Her work has also been shown internationally in the United Kingdom, Korea, China, Brazil, and across Europe.
Further Reading:
- More about visual artist and designer Alicja Patanowska;
- More about The Ripple Effect as part of the London Design Festival 2025;
- More on Alicja Patanowska and The Ripple Effect at the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington;
- Also on SustMeme, Lottery land art honours heritage game changers;
- Also on SustMeme, Green art goes under the hammer;
- Also on SustMeme, How can we close the global Circularity Gap?
Check out the full archive of stories on the SustMeme Circular Economy Channel, now available to Sponsor.
