The Water Runs Through It: Tools for Water (2025)

I’m pleased to announce the the debut of my new work, The Water Runs Through It: Tools for Water—a new installation that employs the “divining rod” or “dowsing rod”—a classically ‘Y’ shaped branch used to locate ground water and hidden minerals—as a device to address issues surrounding water/land access, ownership, and control. The installation is comprised of over 40 wooden branch sculptures which have been subtly whittled, burnt and stained, and covers the expanse of a 30-foot wide wall in the forthcoming exhibition Making Space, on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) from July 12 – November 2.

The physical rods are animated in a corresponding live performance by the same name, developed in collaboration with Souleymane “Solo” Badolo (choreographer and dancer), Abdoul Aziz Derme (dancer) and Sue Rees (animation and projections), which premiered at Bennington College on April 3. A version of the digital animation featured in the performance will be presented alongside my installation at BMAC, accompanied by a live performance at the museum on September 12.

Drawing upon this unscientific method that is dependent upon the ‘divine’ energies of the rod-bearer (the “dowser”), the performance intimates that power, violence, and folly is in the hands of individuals who make far-reaching decisions about water access and distribution—from Burkina Faso to Palestine. Having relied on water for their growth and formation, the divining rods I created are activated by the dancers and function as tools to locate water. Rees’s animated video projection utilizes 3D scans of the dowsing rods, creating a world where both dancers and rods become seekers in search for this essential and often elusive life force.

Badolo and my work both address issues of water access and divination: my ongoing series of work about my Palestinian ancestry investigates the Israeli government’s control of water in Occupied Palestine as a tool to ethnically cleanse the land of its indigenous population; while Badolo’s work investigates indigenous divination practices in response to the water crisis in his home country of Burkina Faso, where his activism has led to the repair and construction of wells.