Frank Gillette’s Spectra Obscura at Microscope Gallery is a hushed, multi-sensory journey through decay and ephemeral natural phenomena. As ambient field recordings of Eastern Long Island’s woodland and beachscapes subtly mingle with electronic sounds, visitors are immersed in a soundscape that complements the layered, three-channel video works that line the gallery’s east wall. Since the 1960s, Gillette has built an ecology of media, piercingly focused on the entanglements between nature, culture, and human-induced biospheric devastation.

These works, from his The Symbiotic Blues trilogy, express the infinitesimal and urgent through videos and Polaroids. A standout is the single-channel video Symptomatic Syntax, which captures slow, shifting aquatic environments with sounds of running water and an intermittent voice-over from J.M.E. Taggart’s 1908 book, The Unreality of Time. Each piece in the exhibition is a poignant, intimate look at the fleeting beauty of the natural world and the devastating impact of human actions.