Rare Earthenware Vases

2014 – 15; Designers: Kate Davies, Liam Young, Unknown Fields; Ceramics artist: Kevin Callaghan, London Sculpture Workshop (London, United Kingdom)

Three vases were made from toxic mud—a mixture of acids, heavy metals, carcinogens, and radioactive material—dug from a tailings lake in Inner Mongolia. Each corresponds to the amount of toxic waste created in the extraction of rare earths used in the production of three high-tech products.