Opening tomorrow and closing on March 30th is Cockfight, a show by David Ellis being put on by Roebling Hall at the Volta Fair in NYC. Press release after the jump.

via, paper monster

David Ellis “Cockfight” at VoltaNY – The Eye of the Beholder

Thursday 27 March – Sunday 30 March 2008

7 West 34th Street, New York City

1 PM – 9 PM Daily

Roebling Hall is pleased to present David Ellis at the premiere of VoltaNY, during Amory Week in New York. The work of David Ellis weaves rhythm, cultural landscape and conceptual art. Ellis works within a variety of disciplines in a process that promotes improvisation and spontaneity, one that likens the artist’s practice to that of a Griot. In his ongoing kinetic sculpture series entitled “Trash Talk,” the artist collaborates with composer Roberto Lange. Placing hidden actuators within the trash and using his ear to determine each object’s inherent resonance, Ellis provides cues for Lange to compose sequences that transform what appear to be dormant piles of debris into kinetic heaps of percussive funk. “Trash Talk 2”, the largest of the series, was site specific for the group exhibition “Ensemble”, curated by Christian Marclay at the ICA, Philadelphia. Subsequent installations “All Purpose Primer” at the Zoo Art Fair, London and “The Message” at NADA, Miami continue this trajectory. The latter, a typewriter on a grade school style desk banging out a rendition of Grandmaster Flash’s 1982 rap in it’s entirety, i.e. “Don’t push me ‘cause I’m close to the edge…” was simply show stopping.

Ellis continues this exploration of kinetic sound sculptures with the installation of “Cock Fight” for VoltaNY. In the ring, Ellis and Lange stage a face-off with two of their noisy children. The “Owl “ a human-scale big-eyed bird with flapping winglets and tapping feet, is constructed of glass bottles in various sizes, all tuned to tinkle out Lange’s percussive rifts. In the other corner, “Hell’s Angel” a suspended avian creation with ten-foot bottle-covered wings that undulate ominously, squawks back, a funky battle of beats in motion.

Interested in seeing more? Coinciding with this “Battle of the Birds” Ellis will also be in the ring. The Theory Icon Project has commissioned Ellis to do a weeklong painting performance, March 27 through April 3. Ellis will paint every day from morning until night in the Theory store at 38 Gansevoort Street, New York City. Ellis has built an airplane hangar inspired structure in which he will paint. Ellis will begin painting in the structure at a month-long residency at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh in March, for an April show there called Inner and Outer Space curated by Dara Meyers-Kingsley. This entire process will be captured in stop frame animation that Ellis calls Motion Painting. A digital camera installed overhead inside the structure is programmed to take bird’s-eye-view images of the artist at work. The digital stills are then compiled as video sequences, and scored by composer Roberto Lange who is on site for the entire week of performances at Theory. The resulting compilation, a fast-forward explosion of evolving imagery, becomes as much the work of art as the painted canvas. The final work is installed as a diptych image, with the finished canvas and motion painting in conversation with one another. The result is an exploration of the relationship between “art” and process. The finished works will be installed at the Theory flagship store from April 7th – June 2, 2008. Both performance and installation are free and open to the public.