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Berninneit Art Gallery unveils 'Kelp and the Sentient Sea' by Kim McDonald and Jasmine Susic 13 September to 26 October 2025

Berninneit Art Gallery presents Kelp and the Sentient Sea, a collaborative exhibition by Kim McDonald and Jasmine Susic, exploring Bass Coast's marine life through printmaking, dance, film, and installation from 13 September.

By news@gippsland - 2nd September 2025 - Back to News

Berninneit Art Gallery will welcome a new exhibition featuring local artists Kim McDonald and Jasmine Susic, titled Kelp and the Sentient Sea opening 13 September. Inspired by the extraordinary marine life of the Bass Coast and the Yallock Bulluk Marine Park, the exhibition explores the beauty, power and sentience of the ocean through a collaborative practice spanning printmaking, film, dance and installation.

Berninneit Art Gallery hosts Kelp and the Sentient Sea, a new exhibition by Kim McDonald and Jasmine Susic, running 13 September - 26 October 2025

Art meets the ocean

Both artists are deeply connected to the Bunurong and Gunai Kurnai oceans and coastlines, where they live and immerse themselves in the ocean daily. Their work creates a sensory experience that heightens awareness of kelp forests and the sea's life force, energy and dynamism. This body of work also celebrates intergenerational collaboration, with Kim and Jasmine being aunty and niece.

Jasmine Susic said, "In our work, printmaking becomes performance and performance becomes printed marks made on surfaces. Our disciplines cross over, intersect and overlap, not unlike the forces of oceanic environments and their elements," she said.

Celebrating coastal connection

Jasmine added, "The aim for our exhibition is to create an immersive, inclusive sensory space that heightens ocean awareness within the Bass Coast community, by sharing our interpretation of the mystery and wonder of our coexistence with the kelp forests of the Great Southern Reef."

"We love the beauty of the Bunurong and Gunai Kurnai oceans and the coastlines that we live near. We walk on their shores and immerse ourselves in the oceanic environment on a daily basis. This is what inspires our art practice," she said.

Exhibition details

• Title: Kelp and the Sentient Sea
• Artists: Kim McDonald and Jasmine Susic
• Venue: Berninneit Art Gallery
• Dates: 13 September to 26 October 2025

Performance & Artist Talk will be on Saturday 25 October, 2pm - 4pm.

Artist biographies

Jasmine Susic

Bunurong-based contemporary dancer Jasmine Susic works across improvisation, installation, performance and dance theatre. A graduate of the VCA Secondary School and New Zealand School of Dance, Jasmine has developed project-based dance works since 2020 across Aotearoa New Zealand, Naarm Melbourne and Bunurong Bass Coast.

She is currently touring the award-winning Melbourne Fringe Festival show Running into the Sun across Aotearoa. Collaboration is central to her practice, frequently working with visual artists in printmaking, photography and film to explore movement in response to nature.

Kim McDonald

Born in Leongatha, South Gippsland (1961), Kim McDonald is an interdisciplinary artist and member of Regional Arts Victoria, The Toora Arts Network and The Owls of Nebraska Group. She also works as an arts support worker with the all-ability theatre company It's No Drama.

McDonald's academic background includes studies in printmaking, painting and drawing at Chisholm Institute of Technology, postgraduate studies at the VCA and Emily Carr School of Art & Design (Vancouver), and further postgraduate research in movement, dance and visual art at Melbourne and Monash universities.

Her work is represented in private and public collections, including the Clemenger Collection and Latrobe Regional Gallery. She is a three-time winner of The Great Southern Portrait Prize and a finalist in The National Monoprint Prize (2021, 2023, 2025). Her most recent solo exhibition Spectral Sea was shown at Latrobe Regional Gallery in 2023.

Pictures from Bass Coast Shire Council website.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com