Photo by Matthew MascotteThe crazy bird named DJ RoyOwl warming up for the percussive cockfight that will take place that evening.

• Name: David Ellis’ Flyway art installation / premiere in New York
• Date: Tuesday April 8, 2008
• Location: Theory in the Meatpacking District (NYC)
• Who was there: Waris Ahluwalia, Yvonne Force, Doze Green, Kenji Hirata, Chris Mendoza, Charlotte Ronson, Tara Subkoff, Leo Villareal.
• What was served: caramel corn, s’mores, fresh baked cookies, donuts the size of fingernails

When I arrived at last Tuesday’s unveiling, the room was already packed, the canvas was tightly wrapped in a blanket, and the screen was blank… party-goers took in the scene and then, at 10pm, the lights dimmed and the movie screen lit up with a vivid, high-definition, time-lapse video, shot from overhead, of David Ellis painting the adjacent canvas. The video offered an insight into his process of trial and error. Ellis was clearly making it up as he went along. A rapt audience, accompanied by digital and analogue percussionists, absorbed the dozens of alternate canvases that may have adorned these walls in a parallel universes. After ten minutes, the blanket dropped, and everyone burst into applause at the sight of the final painting.

Ellis in action - a still image from motion painting Baker’s

The evening and exhibit were commissioned by Theory to commemorate the opening of their new location in New York’s meatpacking district. The label opened a temporary gallery space to host the premiere of the latest motion painting by Ellis, Baker’s. The far side of the space holds a diptych composed of a giant canvas alongside an equally massive movie screen.

Some segments of Baker’s are legitimately stunning, and I’m pretty sure Ellis anticipated that, which is why we have the two juxtaposed canvases. the projection side of the diptych is as much about “process” as “options.”

Ellis’ Hell’s Angel

Another shot from Baker’s

Before the video could play all the way through a second time, a man in a giant chicken suit (DJ Tram assuming the alter ego of RoyOwl) rushed center stage for a clash-of-the-titans cock-fight with Ellis’ own avian sculpture suspended from the ceiling. Hell’s Angel, the kinetic drum sculpture, a bird the size of a man, had been on display at the Armory Show the week before, so it was nice to see it get out a little.

Through June 2, you can watch every possibility Ellis explored either online at theory.com or in the Theory store at 40 Gansevoort Street, where the final painting is also on exhibit.