Kiwi artist Otis Frizzell and racing driver Greg Murphy have combined their talents to create an enormous “live” artistic installation in an abandoned Auckland carpark. The concept is believed to be a world-first, and one of the largest and most ambitious creative interpretations of long-exposure photography.

To capture the image, Frizzell sketched out a 120m x 60m metre abstract art piece and invited Murphy to race along his sketches in a Jaguar I-PACE.

“Three years ago, I was commissioned to design a limited edition artwork for jaguar New Zealand. The result was my interpretation of the classic leaping Jaguar logo broken down into red and white lines,” says Frizzell.

“We eventually decided it would be amazing to try and recreate my design ‘in camera’ using a car as the paint brush, but we needed an amazing driver to pull it off.  That’s where racing legend Greg Murphy came in. If you’re gonna try something this crazy, you need one of the best drivers in the world!”

Murphy completed the task in the Jaguar I-PACE, an all-electric performance SUV with superior precision and road-handling features, to navigate the tricky sketch from Otis.

“I like to think I’m a pretty good driver,” says Murphy.  “But this still took me hours of driving across two nights to get right.  Otis had a vision of the way the car needed to move, and was shouting in my ear pretty much non-stop about when to turn and when to brake.”

“I was essentially flying blind around a dark carpark in Mount Smart, putting all of my faith into Otis’s vision. I’m proud of the results, I can’t quite believe we managed to create it.”

For Frizzell, the biggest challenge to overcome was the rain and darkness.

“Since it took longer than planned, it started to get dark as I was finishing. So I had to do the design wrong to make it right, in the pouring rain, in the dark. There were plenty of moments when I nearly threw in the towel,” he says.

Although a challenging process, Frizzell is stoked with the results, “a lot of people put in a lot of hours in pretty grim conditions to help me achieve my vision. It’s a perfect blend of art and automobile performance.”

Jaguar New Zealand general manager, Steve Kenchington, commented:  “I had a bit of a chuckle when I thought of one of our most prominent artistic families collaborating with our greatest racing legend – but it simply reinforces the fact that art and performance working together delivers stunning results.  We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to Greg Murphy and Otis Frizzell for their vision and ambition.”

The final art piece will eventually go through a limited edition production run, with no more than 10 printed originals available to the general public.  Anyone interested in purchasing a piece of the limited-edition art should send an enquiry to the Jaguar Instagram page.

The Jaguar I-PACE was the first ever model to win all three World Car of the Year titles in 2019, as well as landing New Zealand Car of the Year – the first all-electric vehicle to receive the accolade.

Credits:

• Client:  Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand
• Creative:  Chemistry
• Joint Creative Directors: Patrick Murphy and Susan Young
• Agency Producer: Rosie Grayson
• Behind the scenes photography: Ethan Lowry
• Director and Photographer: Jeff Wood
• Production Company:  Fish & Clips
• Producer: Blaine Stevenson
• Offline Editor: Ben Chesters 
• Audio: Brendon Morrow
• Online: Brad Wood & Leon Woods
• Media Agency:  Together
• PR:  Special PR