Permanent Installation

There is a saying in Spanish, ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente, meaning

what the eyes don’t see, the heart does not feel. Under the Earth’s surface, groundwater in the soil accounts for ninety-eight percent of our usable water. The more porous the soil, the more groundwater it can hold. Susan Knight examines this porosity as a condition for sustaining life and regeneration.

Commissioned for the Museum of Nebraska Art’s permanent collection, Groundwater Magic comprises over eighty components of cut and painted Tyvek. Knight uses a laborious hand-cutting technique to create individual elements painted in red, yellow, gray, and green with acrylic ink. These colors correspond to hydrogeologists’ color-code system for clay, gravel, sand, and silt soil samples. Arranged together, these colorful disks and pods express the power to unite, circulate, and sustain.