Kelp! Reverberations - An Immersive Journey Through the Bull Kelp Forest at SJIMA
- SJIMA
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
On view since September 26, Kelp! Reverberations has transformed the San Juan Islands Museum of Art’s Atrium Gallery into an immersive exploration of art, ecology, and sensory experience.
On view now through December 1, 2025, the installation invites visitors to step inside a luminous kelp forest rendered through cyanotype banners, oceanic soundscapes, sculptural forms, and Indigenous knowledge.
Visitors move through a maze of deep blues and greens—towering cyanotypes overhead, kelp-foraged sculptures rising around them, and an enveloping underwater soundscape guiding them deeper into the living world of bull kelp. Together, these elements illuminate the complexity, beauty, and vulnerability of the Salish Sea’s kelp forests.
The Artists Behind the Installation
Josie Iselin
A fine art photographer, author, and designer, Josie Iselin uses her flatbed scanner as a camera to create stunning portraits of marine algae. Her cyanotype banners—sun-printed images of bull kelp and understory seaweeds—form the visual architecture of the exhibition. Suspended in the upper atrium, these deep blue and turquoise works create the sensation of moving beneath the ocean’s surface.
Iselin’s multidisciplinary practice, grounded in environmental study and ocean advocacy, places her at the forefront of contemporary marine-science communication. Her contribution to Kelp! Reverberations brings both scientific reverence and poetic wonder to the heart of the museum.
Betsy Peabody
Puget Sound artist Betsy Peabody contributes sculptural forms crafted from locally foraged bull kelp stipes—bulbs, bouquets, and intricate weavings that echo the structure and resilience of kelp forests. Her artistic work parallels her decades-long environmental leadership as Founder and former Executive Director of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund.
In the installation, Peabody’s organic forms complement the surrounding sound and banner environments, grounding viewers in the tactile materiality of kelp and the ongoing work to protect it.
Ken Pearce
Sound designer and systems innovator Ken Pearce created the exhibition’s spatialized soundframe system—an immersive audio environment that surrounds visitors with the subtle hum, sway, and pulse of underwater life. His work specializes in experiential sound, algorithmic media, and sensory therapeutic environments.
Pearce’s custom soundframe activates the Atrium Gallery with currents of oceanic sound, turning the architecture into an embodied listening space.
Jonathan Kawchuk
Canadian composer and sound artist Jonathan Kawchuk collaborated with Pearce to compose the soundscape that reverberates throughout the kelp forest installation. His international work across theatre, film, and sound installations infuses the exhibition with musical textures that reinforce the kelp forest as a vital, life-giving ecosystem.
Together, Pearce and Kawchuk create a sonic shoreline—one where visitors can hear the wisdom of bull kelp before they see it.
Inside the Artists’ Vision
In a conversation recorded in the Atrium Gallery, SJIMA Assistant Director Wendy Smith spoke with artists Josie Iselin and Betsy Peabody about the inspiration, process, and ecological urgency behind Kelp! Reverberations. During their discussion, Josie offers a guiding insight into the heart of the installation:
“We need to hear, to see, to feel using all our senses to learn from the bull kelp and appreciate its wonder.” - Josie Iselin
This multisensory invitation echoes throughout the exhibition, where cyanotype banners, sculptural forms, and an immersive soundscape work together to create an embodied experience of the underwater world.
In the interview, Josie and Betsy share how their creative practices intersect with marine science, how environmental research informs their work, and why the health of bull kelp forests is vital to the resilience of the Salish Sea. Their storytelling offers viewers a deeper understanding of how art can amplify ecological awareness and foster connection.
Watch the interview below and then experience the exhibition in person, Friday–Monday, 11 AM–5 PM, now through December 1.
Exhibition Sponsors
SJIMA exhibition sponsors: Honeywell Foundation, Torrance Foundation, Apex Foundation, Town of Friday Harbor, and San Juan County
The Kelp! Reverberations installation is made possible with support from: Above Below, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and Sea Grant Washington