Thirst: an exhibition bridge over troubled water
Daniel Nelson
In the morning I went to an exhibition about water and saw a 500-year-old tablet inscribed with a poem about a water war in Mesopotamia; in the afternoon I read the current Indian government’s threats to end a water treaty with Pakistan in response to terrorist violence.
So there’s no doubt about the relevance of the Wellcome Collection’s new exhibition, Thirst: In Search of Freshwater.
Not that this free exhibition needs to strive for relevance: only 3 per cent of the earth's water is fresh, not all of that 3 per cent is accessible, and the rest is under increasing pressure.
The show’s section on groundwater, for example, highlights tubewells — “a colonial invention that once allowed societies to thrive, but now threatens to bleed the Earth dry.”
The 125 objects on display contain many other indications of human mismanagement of our most precious resource, as well as insights into our complex relationships with freshwater.
There are signs of hope, too, such as the Eden in Iraq project, which is trying to reverse some of the damage wrought by Saddam Hussein as he drained marshlands in southern Iraq in a violent drive to drive out the “Marsh Arabs”. An exhibition Epilogue even asks where we would search for freshwater if the Earth ran out of it, and peers into space for the answers.
No single exhibition can hope to tell the full story of such a vast topic as water, and curator Janice Li’s approach is to divide the exhibition into aridity, rain, glaciers, surface water and groundwater, feature exhibits from different continents and eras, and illustrate points with photographs, videos, historic objects and artworks.
Some exhibits surprise, like the contrasting core samples from the Tiber riverbed; an introduction to Black Mary, the keeper of a lost 17th century healing well in London; and a magnificent Lebanese cloth dyed with polluted waters from Beirut (“I describe materials as a witness,” says artist Dala Nasser).
The result is a dense, varied exhibition that deserves close attention and careful reading but rewards those who give it.
Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, free, Tuesdays-Sundays, is at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE until 1 February. Info: Wellcome
+ How much water do you eat?, designed to raise awareness of our water footprint and the impact of our food on local and global water resources, Wellcome Cafe until 1 February 2026
+19-21 September, Thirst: the symposium, performance, talks, discussions, workshops, free; in the building and livestreamed