Over the last 25 years I’ve been working through a series of animated works that record the ongoing experience of making a painting daily, each new painting obliterating the one from the day prior. Layers upon layers of paint, captured with hundreds of sequentially taken photographs are rendered into one long film in which paintings are seen not as static, but in motion, constantly being made and remade, as weeks of time pass by within minutes.

Animal

Short Clip from Time-lapse video, 9 min., 39 sec., color, sound

Animal

Short Clip from Time-lapse video, 9 min., 39 sec., color, sound

Commission, Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010, Animal is the visual record of Ellis’s six-week-long residency at The University of Texas at Austin. 

Ellis’s newest motion painting, Animal, is the visual record of his residency at The University of Texas at Austin. In collaboration with cinematographer Chris Keohane, Ellis aimed to distinguish this work from previous ones by adopting a more intimate method of production and creating a less structured visual format. Inspired by personal conversations and the natural environment, Animal showcases the delights and details of the creative forces of nature that often go unnoticed. The nine-and-a half-minute animation features a kaleidoscope of spectacular creatures, landscapes, and abstractions—in varying colors and shapes—interspersed with dramatic splashes of paint. As Ellis throws colors across the canvas, he allows for moments of play and chance. The placement of the paint is undetermined and free to settle wherever it might land, suggesting the unpredictability of not only the natural world, but also the artistic process. To compliment the mercurial nature of Ellis’s practice, Roberto Lange’s soundtrack combines a range of unexpected elements. At any moment, one hears vocal excerpts, percussive breaks, ambient noises, ritualistic chanting, or distorted beats. Although Animal differs from Ellis’s previous motion paintings, its shifting moments of freedom, discovery, and surprise extend from Ellis’s continuous search of ways to represent the universality of art through the rhythms and movement of life.

written by: Kanitra Fletcher

LIBERTAS

Stop Motion Painting and Musical Composition by David Ellis

Box Set Edition  (edition of 10 + 2 AP) duration 10:00 min, 32 GB usb 3.1 flash drive, type c with type a adapter

Archival Box: black anodized aluminum archival box, lid and foam insert, 19.5“ x 13.5” x 1”

Video stills printed with archival pigment ink on 310g matte archival paper, 13” x 19”

Pearl Street Triangle, David Ellis

Brooklyn, NY, 2012