CROSSCUT
ArtSEA: Pottery Northwest reopens in Pioneer Square
Plus, sublime slime and a trip to space.
by Margo Vansynghel May 26, 2022
… Also capturing the regenerative power of ground cover is Seattle photographer Melinda Hurst Frye. In the exhibit The Workers (of the Forest Floor) (through June 18) at J. Rinehart gallery, Hurst Frye shows new work in her ongoing series of forest floor ‘scans.’ By means of a high-resolution flatbed scanner and a camera, she zooms in on the mysterious ecosystem below our feet, aka the fungi, slime molds and other “workers” taking “the forest apart, so it may become again.”
With Adams, Hurst Frye shares a keen awareness of light — opting for strong contrasts and strategically lighting up sections of lichen, fungi or grass — and nature’s visual patterns. Both exhibits highlight the fragility of our ecosystem, worthy of our attention in both the artistic and conservationist sense. While Hurst Frye’s is a very different kind of sublime, slime mold has never been so beautiful. …