Passage into a Paper Sea
1993-95
Mixed media
 

Sha Sha Higby:  This has been used many times for performance. The monkeys were electrically powered so their tails wiggle. I made many pieces of paper, colored them, rolled them up into loaves and then sliced them and stacked them up into molds.  The monkey’s were on motion sensors and wiggled when I danced under them.
 

Performance copy
“As they examined the fluffy marrow of the lower backbone they found encrustations of tiny prismatic jewels and chips of gold arranged within the hairline cracks of the spine. What quests in life these creatures must have been, if even in death the jewels will grow. Imagine you float onto a tiny island in the sea. The island is filled with a lacy network of intricate vines, organic passageways, and brocaded arches. You become lost and come to a soft clearing, and as if hidden in a forest painting, something starts to emerge to fill dimensional life.”