There would be nothing new in the notion that cars have long become more than just an object we own, for the sake of convenience, functionality, or as some sign of social status. Cars are our extension, expression and, in the case of Chris Labrooy’s work, escape from the mundane.
Chris Labrooy is a Scotland-based digital artist whose name has come to be closely associated with Porsche. His renders are usually Porsche and 911-centric, whether they’re of new concepts or just pieces of art. They are always whimsical, irreverent, trippy, ridiculous, and very silly, but also beautiful and nostalgic.
Though he didn’t explicitly set out to do this, Labrooy’s work is now almost synonymous with the Porsche name. And he doesn’t even have to wreck perfectly good Porsches to get his shot at immortality through his art.
Photo: Chris Labrooy / Porsche
Labrooy actually started out with big thoughts of becoming an automotive designer himself. In mid-December, Labrooy spoke to Porsche about his art, how he’d define what he’s doing and why he seems to have settled on the 911 as the central focus of his work. He revealed that he’d always loved cars, but it was one particular episode of Top Gear that made him want to try design.
The desire would never materialize, but only because it became something else along the way. After dabbling into sculpture, he discovered CGI and realized it could be a medium in itself, one that would allow him to “subvert and twist familiar everyday things into new typographic and sculptural forms.” As he mastered his skills through incessant practice, his work would end up featured in major ad campaigns for the likes of Porsche (duh), Nike, Apple, Jaguar, Citroen, AT&T, British Airways, Time Magazine, Ted Baker, Target, McDonald’s, and T-Mobile.
The aforementioned chat with Porsche would also fall in this category since he’s now the owner of a 718 Cayman GTS 4.0, which comes to replace his 981 GT4 and a previously-owned 981 Cayman with a PDK transmission, his first-ever Porsche. Labrooy sings the praise of the carmaker, but unlike with most celebrity endorsements, you can feel his words are sincere because his art can vouch for them.
Labrooy loves the Porsche 911 in the way a director loves his or her leading actors. Like Quentin Tarantino and Michael Madsen, the two are pretty much inseparable and they always, without fail, paint a picture of sunny, retro California where all dreams come true. Even the craziest ones.
“I like to juxtapose different elements and am always searching for those moments of happiness,” he explains. “Of all consumer products, cars are the ultimate object of desire. They are such complex things, with unique and very specific identities.”
And there’s no car identity more distinct than that of the 911, a car that’s instantly recognizable and memorable, regardless of the context in which you see it. Labrooy’s art is also like that: his images are always devoid of human presence but still playful in the most surprising way, packed with color and movement, glimpses of happiness in a life of luxury.
“It’s a very soft, rounded shape that’s a highly capable, high performance sports car at the same time,” the artist says. “The 911 has a unique, almost eccentric personality. When I’m making my images, the cars are like actors in a way, and the 911 is like an A-list Hollywood star, with all this depth and versatility.”
Photo: Chris Labrooy / Porsche
Whether Labrooy is putting his 911s in pools, on rooftops, or inside houses, it’s always against the California background. The images are filled with pops of color, and the Porsches themselves are just that. There is a sense of wickedness and humor in them, much like when you expect a child to do doing something silly and funny, and amazing at the same time.
Labrooy lives in rural Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, so his art is escapism for him too. When he isn’t drawing and working on the computer, he gets his escapism from long drives in his Porsche. “The Cayman is an amazing aesthetic experience where you have all these different sensations,” he says, “through the wheel and through the seat. And then there’s sound of course. What’s not to love about a flat-six engine?”
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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