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Thirst: In Search of Freshwater

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Three gallery visitors stand within a suspended sculpture, talking about the work.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection, Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Thirst is a universal human experience shared with most living beings. With only 3% of the water on Earth being freshwater, our land thirsts too.

'Thirst: In Search of Freshwater' explores humanity’s vital connection with freshwater as an essential source of life and pillar of good health.

From ancient Mesopotamia and Victorian London to modern-day Nepal and Singapore, the exhibition highlights the vital role of freshwater in shaping health and ecosystems; the consequences of mismanagement, like the spread of infectious disease; and community-led solutions to the global water crisis.

'Thirst' features 125 objects, including historical artefacts, contemporary materials and artworks from Gideon Mendel, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Susan Schuppli, Anthony Acciavatti, Dala Nasser, Adib Dada, M’hammed Kilito, and Adam Rouhana, amongst others. Through new commissions by Raqs Media Collective, Karan Shrestha and Feifei Zhou and Zahirah Suhaimi (SEACoast), we invite you on an immersive journey to uncover our relationship with water.

The exhibition is curated by Janice Li and accompanied by the book 'Thirst: In Search of Freshwater', featuring leading writers Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak and Lucy Jones. 

Exhibition highlights

A large artwork installation featuring 3 large handing pen and ink drawings, a wood carving, water vessels and a hanging rug.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'water-givers, memory-keepers, and the shifting forces', artwork by Karan Shrestha, 2025. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Karan Shrestha’s ‘water-givers, memory-keepers, and the shifting forces’ explores the complex, interconnected issues facing Nepal. Melting glaciers and mismanagement of water systems lead to prolonged epidemics like dengue and the displacement of communities. The installation calls into question views on water as a resource for human gain – instead, it is a life-offering source that must be shared among all.

Segment of an old clay tablet with inscriptions.
Gilgamesh and Aga Tablet, Courtesy of John Rylands Library, University of Manchester. Thirst: In Search of Freshwater Exhibition at Wellcome Collection, Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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Humanity’s thirst for water drove early civilisations to set territorial boundaries and inspired creative solutions to secure water supplies. This Old Babylonian clay tablet from present-day Iraq, thought to be around 4,000 years old, forms a fragment of the Sumerian poem the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’. This story of two kings at war, Gilgamesh and Aga, is the earliest account of conflict over water.

A cluster of 12 square photographs of varying sizes on a gallery wall. The images show a variety of scenes from a desert landscape environment.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Before it’s gone', artwork by M’hammed Kilito. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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M’hammed Kilito’s work ‘Before it’s gone’ is an ongoing photographic project documenting scenes of oases in Morocco. Morocco has lost two thirds of its oases in the last century to destructive human activities and climate change. To the artist, oases are the perfect model for sustainability, offering an ecological defence against desertification and a refuge for biodiversity.

An exhibit made up of 3 large frames showing a video of airplanes moving through a cloudy sky, in front of which are a series of stepped and arched sculptures and more video screens.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Thirst/Trishna', artwork by Monica Narula of Raqs Media Collective. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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The multimedia installation ‘Thirst/Trishna’ by Raqs Media Collective transports us to the stepwells of Rajasthan and Delhi. These subterranean structures, which can descend up to 100 feet, were built to capture and store rainwater – the watermarks etched onto stone reflect on both the absence and the unpredictable overflow of water.

Large framed photographic print hanging on a blue wall. The shows men swiming and jumping into a constructed waterway.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Ein Aouja', photograph © Adam Rouhana, 2022. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Adam Rouhana took this photograph of people gathering and swimming at Ein Aouja, one of the largest springs in eastern West Bank, after the arrival of seasonal rains in late summer 2022. To Adam, the photo speaks to Palestinian life, even under surveillance and threat, and the innate joy of being with water as the greatest form of resistance.

A series of 5 screens mounted in a horizontal line showing films from different parts of the world affected by flooding. Two gallery visitors are sat on benches watching the films.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Deluge', artwork by Gideon Mendel, 2007 – 2024. © Gideon Mendel. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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‘Deluge’ by Gideon Mendel challenges mainstream journalistic representations of natural disasters. This video installation captures the aftermath of floods around the world and the dignity and resilience of its victims as they stand in the liquid landscape that surrounds them.

Photograph of a gallery visitor sat in a small circular room, wearing a pair of headphones, eyes closed absorbed in the audio.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Ice Records Listening Room', soundwork by Susan Schuppli. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Susan Schuppli’s ‘Ice Records’ transports listeners to the glacial fields of Ladakh, the Himalayas, the Canadian Rockies, meltwater streams in Norway, and the Arctic Svalbard. The crackling sound of ice melting as glaciers and ice sheets recede is a poignant reminder of environmental loss to global warming and with it a record of Earth’s history.

Photograph of a large mottled red and rust coloured material fabric cascading from the ceiling onto the gallery floor.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Mineral Lick', artwork by Dala Nasser, 2019. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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The creator of ‘Mineral Lick’, Dala Nasser, uses a fabric tapestry soaked in equal parts tap-water samples and dye to bear witness to the contamination of drinking water in the city of Beirut, Lebanon. Due to prolonged unrest and government neglect, citizens have been left with no choice but to pay for privatised rooftop water tanks.

Photographic diptych. On the left is a cylinder seal with corresponding relief in plaster and on the right is a colourful wedding blanket and garden plan.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. Left: Cylinder seal with cattle and reed huts, courtesy The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Right: Mesopotamian embroidered wedding blanket, Courtesy of Jassim Al-Asadi and Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden Site Plan, Courtesy of Meridel Rubenstein and Davide Tocchetto. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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This Mesopotamian cylinder seal features mudhiefs, reed houses on floating islands of reed and papyrus, which have been inhabited by the Ma’dan people indigenous to the Iraq Marshes for at least 7,000 years. Now polluted with sewage, the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden uses reed-filtering technology to regenerate the marshes. Its design is inspired by the intricate patterns and symbols embroidered on Mesopotamian wedding blankets.

Photographic diptych showing on the left two gallery visitors watching a film on a large screen, wearing headphone and on the right a close-up of a visitor interacting with a large touch screen.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'A Coastal Look at Freshwater', installation by Feifei Zhou, Jefree Salim, Zahirah Suhaimi, Alan Woo, Daniel Massey and Joe Hilty. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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'A Coastal Look at Freshwater’, featuring a digital interactive map and short film, focuses on a narrow waterway between Singapore and Malaysia called the Johor Straits. This installation highlights human, animal and plant interactions in different coastal habitats, inviting us to explore the environmental and cultural dynamics shaped by rising sea levels and human intervention.

Photograph of a series of six framed colour photographs mounted on a semi-circular wall. A visitor is sat infront of them listing to a commentary on headphones.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Thames Log', photographic series by Chloe Dewe Mathews. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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‘Thames Log’ by Chloe Dewe Mathews is a photographic series that captures the daily routines and religious rituals of diverse communities that live along the River Thames. Chloe reflects on how “…the River Thames is many things to many people: we project meaning onto it… the river has no definitive identity but rather a multitude of guises, with the capacity to ebb and shift its identity even as it flows downstream.”

Photograph of gallery installation showing three columns of large white gauze discs, stacked one above the other, hanging from the ceiling. At the base of each is a circular tube containing a mirror.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Hanging models inverted core samples of Jakarta, New Delhi and Phoenix-Tucson Megaregion', artwork by Anthony Acciavatti, 2025. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Anthony Acciavatti’s ‘Groundwater Earth’ interrogates the impact of groundwater over-extraction around the world. This installation draws attention to the excessive use of tube wells, mechanised technologies for extracting water from rock, which has startlingly altered the Earth’s tilt by 80 centimetres between 1993 and 2010.

Photograph of a gallery visitor holding up a tablet device to view augmented reality asteroids superimposed on a video feed of the gallery environment from the tablet's camera.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection. 'Sometimes farther than the sun', artwork by Raqs Media Collective Mamoru Watanabe. Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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The second reflection on thirst by Raqs Media Collective is an interactive augmented-reality installation that turns the gallery into a cosmic space with water-rich asteroids. ‘Sometimes farther than the sun’ is a virtual imagining of a future in which human survival depends on the search for and the mining of water from asteroids.

Two gallery visitors investigate a display panel where they can touch and feel some of the materials used in the exhibition. Behind the panel are a grid of thatched tiles.
‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ an exhibition at Wellcome Collection, Gallery Photography: Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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The Material Library, developed by Material Cultures and Wolfe Hall, presents an opportunity to explore and interact with the bio-regenerative materials used throughout this exhibition. The natural, minimally processed, reusable materials you’ll see include thatch wall, plant- and wetland-fibre boards, and ceramic lettering.

Visit us

Free admission

Galleries open Tuesday–Sunday, Opening times

Gallery 1, level 0

Step-free access is available to all floors of the building

British Sign Language videos are available

Access resources include a visual story, large print guides and audio description

Access resources

Plan your visit

Exhibition visual story

This visual story provides images and information to help you plan and prepare for your visit to the exhibition.

When you're here

Resources designed to support your visit are available online and in the gallery.

Digital highlights tour
  • Find out more about the exhibition with our digital highlights tour, available in short audio clips with audio description and transcripts, or as BSL videos. It can be accessed on your own device, via handheld devices with tactile buttons, or on an iPad which you can borrow
  • Watch BSL video tour
  • Listen to audio tour with audio description
BSL, transcripts and induction loops
Audio description and visual access
Wheelchair and physical access
  • Step-free access is available to all floors of the building
  • We have a Changing Places toilet on level 0 and accessible toilets on all floors
Sensory access
  • A visual story with a sensory map is available online and in the building at the start of the exhibition
  • You can borrow tinted glasses, tinted visors, ear defenders and weighted lap pads. Please speak to a member of staff in the building
  • Weekday mornings and Thursday evenings are usually the quietest times to visit

Access information, tours and queries

Visit our accessibility page
access@wellcomecollection.org