Thirst II was originally exhibited in Relational Undercurrents at MOLAA as a part of Pacific Standard Time LA/LA in September 2017. The exhibition has now travelled to The Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York and is now open from June 1 – September 23, 2018.

“The results of Global Water Intelligence’s 2016 Global Water Tariff Survey, published in October 2016, have revealed the world’s domestic water and wastewater tariffs increased by an average of 3.6% in nominal terms between 1st July 2015 and 2016 to reach $1.98/m3. The average is based on a household usage of 15m3/month measured in 384 cities worldwide. This global rise was outstripped by jumps of 12.7% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 10.3% in Latin America, where utilities were forced to respond to sustained drought conditions as a result of the El Niño climate pattern, and macro-economic upheavals which demanded water rate subsidy cuts,” GWI, UK.

According to Circle of Blue, the price of water rose 6% in the 30 major US cities of its survey in 2015 which was up 41% since 2010.

Thirst II was made as an update and direct comparison to Thirst I. This time instead of using 2009 data, seven years later, new data was sourced and four extra panels added keeping the amount of water (100 gallons based on 4,000 gallons consumption) and the currency (USD) constant. Now, 16 cities are represented to include those war torn regions like Damascus, the hosting of the Olympics (Rio de Janeiro), intensive overpopulation (Mexico City) and privatization, Moscow. In short, most cities showed an increase in the cost of clean water supply save for Havana and Aukland, which decreased marginally. Nassau jumped from $.63 (2009) to $3.41 (2016) and San Diego from $1.65 to $3.03.