We often link patience with long-suffering perseverance, but a friend of Voltaire's named Luc de Clapiers once wrote, "Patience is the art of hoping." Between Sha Sha Higby's productions, we are patient. It can take years for Higby to complete a new sculptural work — an intricate carapace of paper, wood, clay, and silk into which she will nestle her own flesh and blood. We could gaze at these "costumes" in a museum, marveling at the delicate details and complex designs, admiring the balance between solidity and buoyancy, color and austerity, corporeality and spirit, but we would never glean the kinetic secrets that are revealed only in front of a live audience. Higby's central creation in Paper Wings suggests a luna moth — though it also invokes the dark emotional response of a spider. But rather than a myriad of eyes, this creature has faces — on every limb, behind doors, behind other faces, and within constellations of bones and seashells. What you witness is a transformation. Obviously, if you are in the mood for scandal, explosions, nudity, or laughs, this is not a show for you but, for people with patience, it is a bit like stargazing: quietly beautiful, mutable, immeasurable.
415-673-3847
Comments are closed.
