Grant Summary
Fellowship.
Keywords
Artist Statement
Currently, I am exploring gesture and materiality to create sculptures as Power Objects. I offer my objects as proposals of refusal to complicate an easily affirmed and consumed narrative and identity, without absolutes. I believe historical discourses of Native Americans have constructed a limited and inconsistent visual archive that currently misrepresents our past experiences and misinforms current expectations. I excavate hidden histories, and dominant narratives to deconstruct them through a theoretical framework of auto-ethnography to move “Indian” outside of governing discourses in order to build a visual genealogy that refuses to line-up with the many constructed existences of Native Americans. My goal is, for my art to lend itself as new texts, with new histories, and new manifestations, to add to the discussion of complex racial narratives that are critical to further realizing the self, the nation, and necessarily, our shared experiences and histories.
  • I bind you Nancy (detail) 2018, Natalie Ball, mixed media. Courtesy of the artist.

  • I Bind You Nancy 2018, Natalie Ball, coyote skull with lower jaw, waxed thread, vintage "Skookum" dolls, beaded deer hide moccasins. Courtesy of the artist.

  • When Harry met Sally. I mean, when my Mom met my Dad. I mean, when my Ancestors met my Ancestors. I mean, when a Lace Front met Smoked Skin 2018, Natalie Ball, beaded elk hide moccasins, synthetic lace front wig, shell beads, metal pins, waxed thread, tube sock. Courtesy of the artist.