by Milo Clark
Message from the rainforest of untourist Hawaii
(Swans - February 14, 2005) Sha Sha Higby is from Faery. Unique is a confining word for Sha Sha. She gathers air into form and expands beyond it. Through her, space is released from its bounds. She gives color new perspectives, moving far off-screen beyond out-of-box. Tireless. Giving. Achieving. Intensity relaxed. Pushing, ever pushing for sparkle, for light plumbed from darkness, for sensation edging description -- that's Sha Sha Higby.
Sha Sha calls Bolinas home. Bolinas is a time-passed town clinging determinedly to the wild California coast a bit north of San Francisco off the coastal road. Bolinas homes are among those celebrated as grand funk, woodbutcher homes, ever new while clinging to the personalities of those who live in them. Proper doors, picture windows with a lamp on a table, fashionable materials meticulously cleaned, floors swept daily are not Bolinas style. Old redwood and cedar seasoned with the salty air, Bolinas homes settle into and are part of a natural environment little troubled by development. Gentrification has taken some toll. Not in Sha Sha's place, though.
Every surface, every wall, every floor space in Sha Sha's place is decorated, littered and embellished with the flotsam and jetsam, collections, sources and materials which, given a touch of Faery, emerge as her public persona, her costumes.
Costume is another word inadequate to Sha Sha. Her creations are meticulously and carefully crafted inspirations animated by the slowly paced movements of Sha Sha within. She offers and creates impressions unique to each observer/participant. Audience is another word which fails in its commonly understood meanings. Viewpoint or point of view may be more useful as each person's perspective of Sha Sha comes from a differing angle as well as differing assumptions giving her assemblage quality or character. Letting go opens to Sha Sha.
Her layerings and combinations and arrangements of the ephemeral all permit light to insert and bounce and sparkle and sprinkle around her. Her creations embody insights from many cultures within which Sha Sha has immersed herself on her way to today.
Indonesian shadow puppets, Japanese Noh costumes and movements, exposures and experiences in seemingly myriad world cultures coalesce in Sha Sha's Faery.
Visit her at www.ShaShaHigby.com where Faery meets shaman and your heart expands.