“The Glass Jungle“(2007)
“White Dust on Water"(2006)
“Bird on a Stick”(2004)
“White Dust on Water"(2006)
“Bird on a Stick”(2004)
“Tea on a Twig” or “A Cup of Tea on A Twig”(2002)
The Yellow Cup (2001-2)"
The Yellow Cup (2001-2)"
"Sleeping in a Sandstorm (2000)"
“The Wooden Sun”(1998)
"The Spider & the Buddha" (1995-96)
Journey through memory and experience, a fantastic mystery woven into a timeless trancelike dance of a spider's adventures into a wooden Buddha.
"Passage into a Paper Sea" (1993-94)
As they examined the fluffy marrow of the lower backbone, they found encrustation's of tiny prismatic jewels and chips of gold arranged in fanciful decorative patterns within the hairline cracks of the spine. They puzzled what quests in life did these creatures have, if in death their jewels continue to grow?
Imagine you float onto a tiny island in the sea. The island is filled with a lacy network of intricate vines, organic passageways, brocaded arches. You become lost and come to a soft clearing, and as if hidden in a forest painting, something emerges to full dimensional life.
Pineapple Tent Under a Pink Moon" (1992)
Two works emerging into one. The feathered body of a thousand sweet faces, clothed in textured adventures through a forest of marbled heads casting beams of pastel sunlight onto obstacles of delight that cross into its pathway. Unloading fluffy boxes filled with miniature beaded shoes enlace a spinning fan that clicks out rhythms for a tiny corset that dances. It is the urn of life. Bicycles and spinning creatures coated with patterns of milleflore run about the stage, like the madness and entertainment of cities.
"Pineapple Sunset" (1991)
Our costume is back from its journeys in India now tattered and dusty, with a string of painted flowered heads suspended and swinging into the sky. Folded amongst thousands of pounded silken tussah ikat feathers stitched by 8 Indian tailors and painted by the miniaturists of Jaipur, the same body rusts in the sun, and the heads change their color, letting each visage revolve slowly into a dance of focus and life.
"The Tin Twin" (1989)
While hidden in an accordion mansion of black and white pavilions the Tin Duck approaches hesitantly and spreads its feathers in glory embraced by a circle of wind. To the song of the rocking of tiny wooden horses and stuffed bicycle men, Higby transforms into a glass cloud, and disappears into a rock to begin again.
Past Repertoire
"A Tin Duck in a Box of Wind" (1988)
A rock spirals up slowly from the earth and unwraps itself. Donning a cloak of miniature white fences, wrists spin out into tiny white striped trampolines that wind up and curl. Folded paper buttons open up a chest of yellow clouds. Buried in a neck of smocked feathers, a face splits into fire.
"A Bee on the Beach" (1987)
Shred pleated tissue in a branch, skins of snake in sand rattling, the costume emerges into its full armour of spiraled silk of a dance with forty wriggling fingers, fans and flags. A felted automobile spins in the sky.
"Cows Under a Pepper Tree" (1986)
The cycles of birth, death, and rebirth are created in a tiny town constructed of carved wood gates, flaming houses, mechanical birds, spindles & mirrors.
"Through a Gold Window" (1985)
Within a suspended crystal window set, the crouched dancer elastically controls miniature golden puppets.
"Moon Puppets" (1984)
In two parts, Sha Sha begins in a black costume with delicate yellow puppets and then breaks into a whimsical, lacy costume, surrounded by a set of small chairs which are knocked over in a dance with spiraled sticks.
"Sasadahara" (1983)
In a costume conceived and made by the artist in Java, the dancer sits in a glassed shrine, and emerges from a costume carved from water buffalo hide by Indonesian village puppet makers.
e-mail: shasha@shashahigby.com
