Dowsing Rod (Missing Person)

Andreana Donahue
"Dowsing Rod (Missing Person)", 2014
Paper, sequins, cotton
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2017.33.001

Dowsing Rod (Missing Person) is one of a series of works Andreana Donahue made in response to a historical event that took place in Nevada's Humboldt County in 1875. Two settlers, J.W. Rover and F. J. McWorthy, promised to pay a local Paiute man (whose name was not recorded) with a horse and saddle if he led them to a sulfur deposit near the eastern edge of the Black Rock Desert. The claim they filed on the deposit is a matter of public record, but it’s rumored that their guide never received his payment. Donahue, whose works typically reflect on local traditions and materials in different sites around the world, reimagined the story through a set of objects that meditated on the experience of searching through a difficult landscape for an “elusive promise” that might never be realized. Even viewers who trust the promise of their eyes need to think again—there is no wood in this stick. (DKS)