We first met Jenny Turpin at The Australian Museum, where we were invited to take part in an exhibition hosted by the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS). We created a one-of-a-kind necklace inspired by a lesser-known shark species, while Jenny showcased a floating shark sculpted from kelp ribbons. Realising that we were equally obsessed with seaweed, we naturally forged a friendship.

A few months later, we visited Jenny in her Sydney studio; it felt like stepping into a living gallery. Emulating the undulating kelp forests of Australia’s Great Southern Reef, giant Bull Kelp loomed overhead. Below, sculptural seaweed rested in trays while translucent varieties were pressed onto large sheets, stacked neatly like botanical archives.Jenny wears the Twisted Pipi Choker, Fine Kelp Pearl Necklace, Medusa Bangle and Golden Kelp Ring.

Jenny’s connection to kelp is unmistakable, informing much of her creative practice. Growing up by the beach in Perth, this fascination was inspired by a lifelong love of the ocean: "Some of my fondest memories are swimming in the sea on my father’s shoulders and going to Rottnest Island with my grandfather. He would dive down and disappear into these huge blowholes and then pop up in a different part of the reef."

With a multi-disciplinary practice spanning sculptures, large-scale installations, interactive workshops, and beyond, Jenny’s work illuminates the beauty of our natural world, fostering curiosity through a blend of art and science. We sat down with the artist in her studio to explore the inspiration behind her work and how she’s using the power of art to inspire care and change.

“Art and science are inherently creative and curious.”

Your work sits at the intersection of sculpture, installation, engineering and science. What fuels your practice?

Art and science are inherently creative and curious disciplines that often share an intense connection to the natural world. Both are involved in experimentation with natural phenomena and the investigation into nature’s life forms. In an age of human-induced climate change, science provides critical knowledge that underpins the need to respond effectively, and art plays a powerful role in positively transforming our relationship with the environment.

Your sculptures and installations are fluid and often interactive. What emotions and reactions do you hope to instil in your audiences with your work?

I strongly believe that we cannot care for the things we don’t understand or connect with, so I try to inspire love and awe for nature through my practice. My work has always been about the desire to make meaningful change and use the power of art to encourage deep care. I want to acknowledge and remind the world that we are part of the animal kingdom—insects, plants and living organisms are all our kin.Tell us a bit about your kelp works - what inspired you to pursue kelp as a medium, and how do these natural materials inform much of your work?

I have always been interested in the natural world, especially marine life. I worked with Professor Adriana Vergés, an ecologist whose research focuses on the conservation of coastal marine habitats, on an initiative called Operation Crayweed, which aims to restore crayweed forests to Sydney's reefs.

Over the years, a number of my art projects stemmed from this initiative, starting with immersive land art and a participatory project for SXS 2015 called Operation Crayweed Art Work Site. Merging sculpture with performance, we created floating artworks above water to highlight the incredible invisible work conducted by the scientists underwater.

“The Great Southern reef is very seaweed-heavy….seaweed produces oxygen that's absolutely crucial for our survival...I think we need to focus on it more.”

My kelp installations and sculptures are often about creating awareness around the Great Southern Reef, which remains much lesser-known. It spans across the whole bottom half of Australia and it's bigger than Europe, stretching over 8,000 kilometres. In comparison, the Great Barrier Reef is about 2,000 kilometres long, but it’s always traditionally been the reef that's attracted the most attention, science and funding, thanks to the beauty and diversity of its coral reefs. 

This reef is very seaweed-heavy, but it’s equally, if not more, important from a biodiversity point of view. Seaweed produces oxygen that is absolutely crucial for our survival, so it's an incredibly important part of our environment and I think we need to focus on it more.

Can you share a bit about the process, research and development that goes into creating your kelp sculptures and installations?

Bull Kelp is one of the seaweed specimens I’ve sourced a lot of for my work. They are larger than life, stretching five, six, and even seven metres long. We never harvest anything from the ocean, we only collect the seaweed after it's been washed up on the shore from storms. 

Once I had sourced all of this seaweed from various locations, I invited a few marine scientists, including Adriana Vergés, and taxonomists from Sydney’s Botanic Gardens to identify each species. Once I learned about all of their scientific names and unique properties, I started working with them aesthetically.

“Seaweed in its natural water habitat has this incredible embodied sense of movement and fluidity.”

Seaweed in its natural water habitat has this incredible embodied sense of movement and fluidity in the currents, and it's not subjected to gravity. But outside water, it becomes lifeless, flat, almost like a carcass. To bring them back to life, I soaked them in large vats of water to rehydrate them. I then hung and curled them around pieces of PVC pipe to dry, and in the process, they would shrink more than 50%. Every day I would adjust each curl because they often had a mind of their own. Can you share a project or a piece of work that you are particularly proud of?

In 2021, my colleague Michaelie Crawford and I were invited by the Manly Art Gallery and Museum to do an exhibition around our seaweed artworks. Instead, we suggested hosting an entire Seaweed Forest Festival, involving all things seaweed. 

The festival celebrated the hidden world of the underwater kelp forests of the Great Southern Reef. It highlighted the inter-relationship of the life-sustaining and finely-balanced ecosystems of that marine environment.

Titled Seaweed Arboretum, the artworks we showcased featured a collection of seaweed from the marine environments of Sydney, the South Coast of New South Wales, and South Australia, which we pressed, dried and suspended across three different rooms as interactive sculptures and installations.

“We created a dialogue between the seaweed, their water memories, and light…each one was gently sculpted into forms that were expressive of their inherent characteristics.”

We created a dialogue between the seaweed, their water memories, and light, experimenting with moving shadows to create a fluid, oceanic environment. Each one was gently sculpted into forms that were expressive of their inherent characteristics. These works provided an oceanic ‘habitat’ for the five-week festival, which included many interactive events, talks, cooking classes, drawing workshops and performances focused on seaweed. It was the outcome of a journey of transformation, from ocean seabed to terra-firma gallery.

If you could share one powerful message to inspire action in protecting our oceans, what would it be?

Always consider the connection between land and water—everything that happens on land will eventually affect our oceans. Indigenous people don’t often make a distinction between the two because they see the connection so strongly. Everything from our gutters and street drains flows into the ocean, so always be mindful of what you put out into the world. What’s next for you, do you have any exciting exhibitions or projects on the horizon?

I have a project coming up in Berlin that is about biodiversity—it will be called the Glacial Garden. This emerged and evolved from a residency that I recently did with a few other artists, which looked at animal architecture, including spider’s webs, bird’s nests, and beaver dams. 

I've also been working on the design of a fountain for birds—all of the work that I do is heavily environmentally focused. And, of course, I have lots of other big ideas for the seaweed. I’d love to collaborate with the Australian Museum on this.

For our latest Mother's Day campaign, The Nature of Motherhood, we were inspired to showcase the beauty of Jenny's kelp, capturing their sculptural details in portraits shot by photographer Jess Ruby James and creative still lifes. Discover the Mother's Day Gift Guide.

Discover Jenny Turpin’s ocean-inspired practice and conservation initiatives here.

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Fine Kelp Pearl Necklace

Medusa Bangle

Golden Kelp Ring