Natalie Ball: bilwi naats Ga’niipci

Many of Ball’s sculptures, including ribbon skirt There’s Indian and then there’s Indian., relate to the body and ideas of belonging. Here, a rope affixed to the ceiling suspends a horizontal pole, which connects to the rest of the work’s leaning armature. Braided elk hide, or “ribbing,” wraps around the wooden elements, signaling the tender—and tenuous—relationship of the work’s components to one another and to the surrounding environment. The vertical poles stretch toward the wall yet remain anchored in place, as if the structure is forever considering how to enter the room and how it belongs there. 

For the artist, the very concept of belonging is one she constantly questions, as its meaning can change in different cultural spaces. This creates a productive tension that has focused Ball’s artistic aims. She strives at once to channel those who lived before her, reflect on her own experiences, and hold close the awareness that she is also a future ancestor with responsibilities to generations yet to come.