At the heart of the Madejski Garden at the Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, Alicja Patanowska presents her latest work ‘The Ripple Effect’. Two thousand tiles, each conceived and formed on the potter’s wheel by the artist’s hand form a flowing, field-like plateau that materialise as a seating and material experiment installation, complete with a functioning fountain guiding water into the central pond. Newly commissioned by the V&A and supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute, the work is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025.
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 – and 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 installation reflects the copper mining yield of just 0.4%. This ratio is illustrated in the installation, with only eight copper coloured tiles scattered amongst the 2000 blue tiles.
By combining craft-based material experimentation with reflections on the climate crisis Patanowska points to the potential of craft as a strategy rooted in attentiveness, respect for materials, and in building relationships based on care and responsibility.
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. Water – present in the installation and symbolically evoked through the colour of the tiles – 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 work echoes William Morris’s belief in craft to build social bonds and ethical meaning.
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, whose circulation – like that of water – require care and consideration.
“Companies produce what we buy,” says Patanowska. “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’
Each small tile, hand-made 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.
The Ripple Effect was commissioned by V&A Contemporary Programme Curator Carrie Chan and will be on view in the Madejski Garden, V&A South Kensington from Saturday 13 September until the end of Frieze Art Fair (20 October 2025).
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Alicja as part of our programme of projects exploring design’s response to crises and urgent issues,” says Carrie Chan, V&A, ‘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’.
The Ripple Effect is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025, a diverse programme of over 100 multi-artform events in 40 cities in both countries
“Strengthening British – Polish creative collaboration lies at the heart of the Polish Cultural Institute’s mission and the UK-Poland Creative Season 2025,” says Paulina Latham, Head of Visual Arts and Music at the Polish Cultural Institute in London. “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”.
On Friday 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 (6:00pm, Madejski Garden, V&A). In addition, workshops will be accompanying the installation.
Patanowska’s ‘Plantation’ installation will also be open this LDF located at The Urban Famer in London’s Fleet Street Quarter – a series of 200 hand-made porcelain elements growing plants, herbs and vegetables using hydroponics and repurposed drink glasses. On display since November 2024 visitors can observe the growing live artwork as a quiet act of care and transformation.
As part of the UK/Poland Season 2025, ‘The Ripple Effect’ installation is co-organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, British Council and Polish Cultural Institute in London and supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland and celebrates the shared values of innovation, creativity and cultural dialogue.
● Opening hours – Daily: 10.00 – 17.45 | Friday: 10.00 – 22.00 | Free to attend
● Saturday, 13 September – Sunday, 19 October 2025
● Friday Late ‘5 Rhythm Session’ by Alicja Patanowska – Madejski Gardens, 6pm Friday 19 September Free to attend
● Location – V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road,London, SW7 2RL
Links ● Alicija Patanowska – The Ripple Effect – Display at V&A South Kensington · V&A ● London Design Festival — Alicija Patanowska – The Ripple Effect
Photo credit: J.Celej/IAM
