Artists Michelle Samour and Sue Rees and dancers Souleymane Badolo and Abdoul Aziz Dermé explored the politicization of water access in this collaborative performance project.

Presented at Bennington College, Bennington VT in April 2025
Followed by
presented in connection with Samour’s installation The Water Runs Through It: Tools for Water, on view in the group exhibition Making Space. At Brattleboro Museum in September 2025

The performance uses the trope of the divining rod—a classically ‘Y’ shaped branch used by a dowser to locate ground water. Drawing upon this unscientific method that is dependent upon the “divine” energies of the dowser, the work intimates that power, control, and folly are in the hands of individuals making far-reaching decisions about water access and distribution.