Thousands have lived without love, the multitude reminds us, but not one without water. Indeed, in the third millennium, clean water should be an inalienable right for everyone. But ours is an imperfect world. Some of us are born lucky and enjoy water as a natural resource, there are many and we find it like air, but this is air, geographically and legally speaking. Water is like money: Only when you don’t have it do you realize how much you need.
How can one show cover such a big topic? Water has a therapeutic need, a scientific miracle, a source of spiritual and artistic reverence. “Thirst: Looking for fresh water,” The main exhibition in the collection of London in London, attempts to capture clean water through a number of lenses – artistic, scientific, social and historical. “Thirst” Spotlights how they rely on water, not just for physical similarities but culturally. It is too full of “thirst” to be easily felt, but this kind show is neatly divided (aridity, rain, snow, helps the viewers to flow things that are found. The result is a very good show.
Curator Janice Li is to be commended for bringing together so many things, themes and ideas under one clean water banner. There is an incredible range of visual materials on display: photographs, films, art, sound, tapestries and VR are all used to tell the story of water or its absence. We see pictures of droughts and videos of floods. The show is interested in the habits of the past, the inequality of the present and the chaos to come.
The main theme of “FORST” is how water used to act on its differences, either by the power of the colonies or today by those industries that drive the climate crisis. Some of the exhibits are typical museum pieces – for example, maps showing the destruction of Iraq’s military, which was released by Saddam Hussein to make way for oil development. But many pieces of the show are a problem of small paintings. Mineral charging, For example, exclaims Lebanese artist Dala Masser, who has gathered different compositions together to highlight Lebanon’s neglected public water infrastructure. The artist calls his sculpture a “hydromap of Beirut.”
“Thirst” goes through the magazine to see not only the diversity of things but also the diversity of ideas, revealing any naïve sense of the west of water as a way to find its rightful place and instead, mismanaged and managed by power. In doing so, “thirst” ignores the politics of water but rather the dead. The show is so rich because of it.
There are some great images throughout “The Drought” that emphasize the politics of water. At the beginning of the show, we see images appear Before it’s gone, Mâhammed Kilito’s ongoing project on the deterioration of the Oasis in Morocco, a country that has been in drought since 2018. We are reminded that drought is both a human experience and a natural phenomenon. But there’s a shot somewhere where it’s ‘dry’ that’s probably the most moving moment in the whole show.
Ein aouja photo by Palestinian-American artist Adam Rouhana, showing a group of men enjoying the water in the West Bank. Even in 2022, when the photo was taken, this event was being taken violently (Rouhana and those in charge were being watched by the Israeli authorities), but the joy on the faces of the men took on a painful meaning a few years since then. Preventing access to water is one of the easiest ways that the power does not control the weak. The inclusion of Rouhana’s ruling image of Palestinian happiness helps elevate “dry” politics above the binary discussion of whether water is available or not. Instead, Rouhana’s image helps viewers understand a more complex social frontier, one where water represents the right to happiness, not just survival. It is impossible to look at the freedom held within Ein aouja– Violence in Gaza and the West Bank is reaching unprecedented levels – and it’s no secret that water is still being used as a weapon by the weak.
Some pictures are more interesting. Best for British viewers will be the Chloe Dewe Matthew series of pictures The Thames Log, Showing the different religious and spiritual groups that use the River Thames in London as a place of spiritual baptism, from African Pentecostal baptism to pagan baptism. There are several amazing installations that you understand than the documentation. Why has water been so important to artists in cultures throughout the centuries? DH Lawrence wrote about this active collection when he described water as “two parts hydrogen, one part air, but no one knows what it is.”
Water scarcity will be a shameful feature of our country. Water scarcity is already frustrating and fueling armed conflicts. This will only increase in reality as the weather conditions worsen. There are some great moments in the show, but “Dry” sometimes feels like our watertight future. But if this exhibition discusses anything, it is that we should listen to other ideas and systems of knowledge, to abandon the thinking that sees water as a commodity to be controlled. A note on the wall tells viewers that “the renewable energy of water offers hope as we have the current climate. We can learn from its community of climate change.” “Thirst” emphasizes the cyclical nature of water, returning to it again and again in the show. Perhaps that’s what Hermann Hesse meant when he described water as ‘the voice of being, the voice of infinity.’
“Thirst: The Search for New Water” is on view in the Wellcome collection on February 1, 2026.
More Show Reviews
