Natalie Ball Betty Bowen Award Winner at the Seattle Art Museum

The Betty Bowen award winner Natalie Ball (Modoc, Klamath) has installed a provocative pair of works in the Seattle Art Museum . Ball is descended from the famous leader of the late nineteenth century Modoc resistance, Captain Jack. That heritage of warrior defiance is obvious here.

You Mist, again (Rattle) and Re Run make up the installation “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Snake.” The title interrupts the familiar nursery rhyme about the stars with a snake that can be both threatening and magical. Ball explores the collision of indigenous and white cultures as well as African American, also part of her heritage

One of the unintended juxtapositions of the installation is the view of the Marsden Hartley in the next gallery. Hartley’s work suggests his affinity with Native American patterns, although he did not move to New Mexico until later. Scholars traditionally focus on the references to Berlin in his symbolism, but seeing his work next to Ball’s the connection is unmistakable.

You Mist, again (Rattle) is full of mysterious references and startling juxtapositions. Ball’s work frequently suggests collage with extremely disparate elements. She purposefully mixes pop, elite, folk, mystical, and humor, along with her sophisticated command of color and composition, to keep us guessing. Looking closely we see crazy pink hair at the top, what she describes as braiding hair, as well as deer and porcupine hair. In that detail alone, the cross referencing of the natural world and the cultural world suggests her willingness to defy any accepted parameters. Even the over all idea of the rattle, here on a huge scale, is in our face, and somewhat frightening.

Note also the bullet shells embedded in a stick supporting the giant rattle. And what about that crazy unlaced shoe and the beaded blue rose hanging from the end of the snake skin. Trickster humor is juxtaposed here with celebrating indigenous vitality and perhaps some crazy sarcasm.

Rattlesnake skin appears as part of both works (although significantly identified simply as rattlesnake), a skin that a snake has shed, after it regrows another, a clear reference to the survival abilities of indigenous peoples, in spite of white man’s best efforts to obliterate them.

The second work Re-Run, is a tilted construction created from a diamond patterned quilt. That pattern is joyful, but the words “Run” and “Ran” formed from overlapped sports letters and mascot imagery suggest a different mood entirely and violently interrupt any easy reading. But the larger figure at the center of Re-Run suggests a tricky, but successful balancing act, that can refer to life in general. There are so many possibilities here for metaphors, that I suggest that you take a good long look and think about it. (Until November 17).

Just for fun I will end with Natalie Ball’s work in YƏHAW̓! the fabulous contemporary indigenous show this summer that I wrote about in early May. She showed another amusing, defiant work which is untitled. But juxtaposing a red tutu and hair weaves with a woven basket is outrageous enough without a title.