David Ellis: Turntable Tree

David EllisTurntable Tree, 2005Five color silkscreen38 1/10 x 29 inchesEdition of 75 David Ellis’ Turntable Tree was created for the Contemporary Arts Center’s group exhibition Gadget: Mechanics and Motion in Contemporary Art (2005-06). Ellis’ work focuses on the creation of complicated sound machines made from everyday objects. Ellis depicts a tree trunk separated from its stump in this fantastical print. The natural plant form is altered and twisted to mimic a record player with a cut-away section revealing a turntable. The severed trunk and stump are tied together through Ellis’ use of a vibrant color gradient that darkens as the color moves up the body of the tree. David Ellis was born in 1971 in Raleigh, NC. He received a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (1994). Ellis has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including at Korn Gallery at Drew University, Madison, NJ (2002); Rice University Gallery, Houston, TX (2006); Amon Carter Museum of Amer