Imagine a canvas nearly as large as a football field. On it bold, swirling shapes in primary colours such as red, yellow and blue. As the eye uncovers the rhythm of the lines, curves, circles and colour splotches, something else is revealed: these forms must have been created by tyre treads. A work of art, created by the new BMW Z4 Roadster.

Over the years BMW has offered great contemporary artists the chance to express themselves on the surfaces of a variety of the marque's sports cars. But the art performance created by the young South African Robin Rhode moves beyond the concept behind the BMW Art Car Collection. Here the car is no longer just a model, but itself executing artist.

"This work is an expression of painting in action — my hope is to communicate the power and thrill inherent in the creation of art," says Rhode.

"For me, the use of an untraditional paintbrush like a high performance car is a great way to investigate the relationship between emotion, technology and industrial creativity."

The development of the picture, this process of formation itself is as important as the completed oeuvre. For this reason the Z4 performance is suggestively titled 'An Expression of Joy'.

The images created by the treads on the huge canvas appear spontaneous, as if created out of the whim of the moment. Yet each movement has been painstakingly planned to the last detail and is the result of an immense technical effort. Unlike the legendary "action paintings" created by Jackson Pollock nothing was left to chance.

But how was the palette of colours actually applied to the tyres? How was the BMW Z4 harnessed to Rhode's specific concept? And how was Jake Scott — who filmed the complete performance for a TV ad campaign — able to capture the action?

Obviously, in the beginning was an idea. The idea was to present the next generation Z4 in a totally unusual location. "One source of inspiration was the seminal work of Gerhard Richter's series of paintings 'Red, Yellow, Blue' made in 1973 for the company headquarters in Munich, Germany," explains Rhode, who was born in 1976 in Cape Town and now lives in Berlin.

Another reference point was the experimental optic animations from the 1920s and German Expressionist Film."The tracks left by the tyres combine the two-dimensional plane of the picture with the three-dimensional space of the actual driving experience."

The artist began by sketches, using black finger paints on paper to draw an outline of the general shapes and rhythms. Then Rhode created the visual equivalent of a storyboard with the exact details of each driving sequence and the specific colour used. Of course, the driver received a copy of the storyboard that he was able to prop up in the cockpit. Since it was nearly impossible to follow the development of the emerging tracks, given the size of the picture's dimensions, Rhode also furnished a miniature of 'An Expression of Joy', complete with two models of the car in order to simulate driving manoeuvres in advance of the actual "paint drive".

The art performance was as challenging for the driver as driving the MINI for the movie 'Italian Job'. Accustomed to taking high performance cars to their limit on test tracks, here he needed to follow the exacting choreography established by Rhode. This meant executing the same moves back and forth several times if the artist was not satisfied by the specific colour intensity, and yet keeping the tracks of the treads perfectly aligned each time.

Each of the colours was individually applied through remote-controlled nozzles mounted near the axles of the roadster. In order to avoid an accidental mix of the colours due to residue in the treads, new sets of tyres were constantly being rolled in and carefully exchanged. From time to time, a sock-clad Rhode literally stepped into the picture to pour on more colour, where necessary adding generous drips.

An aspect accidentally created by this motorised paint brush were the sprays and splotches of colour highlighting the wheel casings of the BMW Z4, resulting in visual traces and echoes of the dynamics of the composition. The canvas itself was composed of individual segments that had been attached together to create the surface and thus allowing the driving and painting process to be sequenced in quadrants. This solution also benefits all future storing and moving of the artwork.

Rhode and his team executed the project in 12 hours. That was also the time frame essentially allotted to director Jake Scott and his crew in which to shoot the BMW Z4's movements. The challenge was that each segment of his film for the BMW campaign needed to be "just right" the first time around. The usual number of takes just wouldn't be possible for this kind of recording.

The huge space of the studio and the giant dimensions of the lowered tub in which the canvas had been spread out, offered unusual vantage points for the placement of the cameras. At the same time it also meant coordinating two highly complex and diverse projects — the actual art performance and the shooting of a TV commercial — down to the last second...