In ‘The Great Thirst,’ a series comprising ten photographs, Eva Castringius addresses the issue of water supply to the desert city of Los Angeles – specifically the Los Angeles Aqueduct. She depicts the aqueduct, which stretches almost 240 miles along the eastern Sierra Nevada north of LA and transports water from the Owens River to the city. “Carrying a handful of plastic pine trees and my camera equipment, I head out into Owens Valley in order to add a new touch of greenery to this desert area,“ explains the artist. Draping the aqueduct with pines is her reference to the area’s former lush vegetation.

Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which was initiated in 1907 and designed by William Mulholland, was at the time considered a brilliant feat of engineering. Tunnels were blasted in conjunction with the project, railroad tracks and electricity lines were laid, and streets and telephone masts sprang up. The first aqueduct was completed in 1913 and was extended another 105 miles to the Mono Basin in 1940. A hydroelectric power station and a cement production plant were built, in addition to a dam and Los Angeles’ largest reservoir, Lake Crowley.

Although the aqueduct temporarily alleviated Los Angeles’ water problems, it wreaked ecological havoc in the Owens Valley. Agrarian production became totally unviable and Owens Lake dried out.

Press release for the exhibition, 'cross country' in Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, 2004