RIP. He was a nice guy and a great artist, but the last years he was quite disabled by (I think) a stroke and it was almost impossible to talk to him. My friend used to visit him to discuss work they did together and I went with him one time; he talked a few times with him after that stroke but it was never the same. I was a big fan right after I saw Alien begin 80s and it was nice to meet him while he was still producing art.
I was a big fan (had been since I first saw the images for Alien as an 11 year old in the UK), however my wife (who is Swiss and knew his son, apparently) is less of a fan of him as a person. I'll spare the details (since, in the interest of fairness I cannot remember the whole story accurately and would not want to mis-represent it in this forum) but yes.. like most people he had his less than perfect moments.
But this should come as no surprise to anyone who's lived a bit. One can be well respected for ones art, but be less respected (in some quarters) for how one acts.
Regardless, I am saddened by the news. It is a great loss IMO.
Very sad, I did not know he was disabled recently. I remember reading a lot about him in the 80s as well, and seeing what he did outside of his work on Alien. Dark Seed (the game) also comes to mind.
That's really sad. I just recently watched "Jodorowksy's Dune" (http://jodorowskysdune.com/), a documentary on the planned but never realized "Dune" movie by Alejandro Jodorowsky, for which H.R. Giger did a lot of artwork and which features an interview with him in his home in Switzerland. If you look at the designs that Giger did for this movie, you can already see the "Alien" style all over it.
If you're ever in Switzerland and a fan of H.R. Giger, you should check out his great museum in Gruyère. [1]
Additionally, the idyllic mountain village is well worth a visit on its own.
I was there with my wife in November and in one small town you have mountains, a castle, cheese, a Tibet museum, and aliens. His art was far more provocative than I anticipated. I thought it was funny that there was an adults-only room. Some could argue that nearly everything belonged in there. Across from the museum is an amazing bar that he designed. You should go there.
Our NW Management company has a Giger piece hanging from the ceiling in their reception. I was (pleasantly) surprised the first time I visited them for a meeting. His work turns up in the most unexpected places. ;)
I don't understand the downvotes. The parent suggests going there for the town, so why not for the cheese?
Just in case someone thinks this is a lame swiss joke: Gruyère is also the name of a _very_ famous cheese from that town, mostly used for Fondue and Quiche Lorraine.
My favorite H.R. Giger story was from when he met the rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer and agreed to do the album art for Brain Salad Surgery. The album name - innuendo for a sex act - inspired an equally sexual album cover. [1] The original image was a futuristic woman with a penis covering her mouth.
The band loved it, but the record company refused to release the album. The band, placed in a difficult position, petitioned to Geiger to adjust the artwork. Geiger refused to bow to the band's and record company's demands, and in the end the record company had to hire an airbrush artist to remove it as much as possible... leading to the "shaft of light" along the neck.
This reminds me of Penis Landscape [1], a painting of his that was used by the Dead Kennedys in the album Frankenchrist [2]. Jello Biafra was trialed for distributing harmful material to minors, but was not convicted. He even went to Oprah [3] to talk about it and confront Tipper Gore about censorship and the PMRC.
My favorite part of the story involves the band's visit to Giger's house. Emerson used the bathroom and found the toilet was a sculpture, consisting of many hands reaching up. "You had to sit on these hands to do a shit."
A truly unique talent. In memory, you should check out Aphex Twin's "Window Licker" directed by Chris Cunningham (HN will probably be most familiar with Bjork's "All is Full of Love" music video). A whole host of talent came together there to make one of the most fucked up things you'll ever witness. Suffice to say a big red NSFW warning goes out on this one!
Its also worth pointing out that Chris Cunningham has a compilation DVD of his videos out there and I'm sure if you do some legwork its easy to find them all on youtube. They're all worth watching. This Squarepusher video is my favorite:
Me neither til I finally picked up a book on Giger and there's the Windowlicker staring at me from the first page I flicked to. I always bought into a rumour (possibly just amongst my friends) that it was a munge of Aphex Twin's face and Chris Cunningham's face.
It was this piece that first gave me that odd moment we're seeing a lot of in this thread as I had always assumed Giger was a contemporary of Escher or even earlier. Seeing Windowlicker was dated 1999 really gave me a surprise.
He did a piece of artwork for the front cover for Triptykon's album Melana Chasmata that came out this year. Not sure when the artwork was done though.
Thanks for that link; I went through there to a truly epic forum thread of teh butthurt. It turns out there are some RDJ "fans" who are really pissed off that there's a "new" album coming out.
Seems like it's just two guys driving around in LA. Partying with scantily clad women, etc. No different from any other hip hop video, and DEFINITELY safe for work.
If you think that the language and misogyny used in this video is safe for work - despite the very obvious irony/parody - then it's no wonder you missed the point.
Good point. However the comment betrays a complete lack of understanding both when it comes to the point being made by the video, and the wider implication that "any other hip hop video" is riddled with misogyny and male chauvinism. It's a very poor comment.
I was always haunted and fascinated by Giger's imagination. What first came into mind was the album cover for Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery". By synthesizing Thanatos and Eros, both primordial in human nature, Giger created instrinsically-appealing artworks. A great loss to the world.
I got to meet the artist when his 'Alien' creation was on display at the California Science Center in Exposition Park. They had a number of sets from the movie on display and the full size creature that was what they build CGI and other latex models from. I remember "Wow, this guy seems completely normal for someone who has the ability to envision something so twisted." It is a rare gift to be able to think about impossible things.
I'm amazed he wasn't dead years ago. Seventy four is a good twenty years younger than I kind of assumed he would be. He was only forty when he did the design for Alien? I know he already had his artistic style famous before that, meaning he must have been a wee tacker when he started out. Amazing.
Also: vale. A talented artist with a distinctive voice.
For those interested in his work, I really recommend viewing the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, a failed film project Giger and several other proto-luminaries worked on (inspiring much of the iconic imagery in Alien, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones). Giger appears throughout the documentary. I believe it's still playing in the Bay Area.
I know this won't add much to the discussion, but I really hope he designed his 0wn casket using his signature style—that would be really fun to see and a great way to show one last piece of artwork.
Lol. Sure. I used to have the special edition DVD...before I let go of all my DVDs. I would just say: don't worry about that. Just soak in the beautiful ambience of a film which features prominently the art of Giger, both in set design, and creature design!
You might want to add a spoiler alert at the beginning of your comment. I'm sure most of HN has already seen the movie but for those who haven't, knowing that can ruin the suspense.
[Spoiler?]
If the movie is called "Alien", is it really a spoiler to say that you see the alien by the end? I suspect that most of the movie is spent dreading the eventuality that we all expect. ;) Granted it's been a long time since I saw the movie, so I might have forgotten why it's a spoiler.
edit: I suspect that I saw Aliens before Alien, and therefore already had an expectation of what it would look like. Thanks to the sibling/cousin comments for explaining that :)
[SPOILERS] Yes, just at the end, so the thing you’ve been imaging in your mind for the whole movie is completely destroyed by the shape of a human being. All that monstrosity that gives life to a human-like. And that happens in the exact moment a human-like animal kills it expelling it into space from the ship. Genius.
Edit: whoops, I didn’t read your comment correctly. I don’t remember where you see its full shape, the airducts is the most plausible place as far as I remember.
For the record, I like Ridley Scott's cuts. I guess I'm specifically alluding to Blade Runner here, as another example.
Second note: I'm noticing already other comments focusing on how much knowledge we have outside of Alien, almost like punk rock posturing. It's okay to like something that's popular and beautiful! Watch Alien! This is not an underground punk band guys, a great genius has just died. =)
Speaking of punk rock, Mr. Giger can claim some significant cultural influence in that sphere too.
Klaus Flouride, the bassist for the Dead Kennedys had mentioned in an interview from 2003 that personal differences between band members, regarding the "Work 219: Landscape XX (penis landscape)" painting, were the breaking point determining the band's breakup:
...the Frankenchrist thing was, say, a final straw as far
as [Jello Biafra] going in a different direction than what
we wanted to do. I felt that the poster itself was shock
for the sake of shock value. We'd shocked people before,
but we'd always tried to have a point behind it. I didn't
see the point he was making. But we didn't quit after the
lawsuit happened. We quit when he decided that that poster
was gonna be in there one way or the other, and we could
take a hike if we wanted to. So we said, "Well, why don't
we call it 'Jello Biafra and Dead Kennedys?,'" since
that's what it was becoming anyway at that point. [1]
The poster was printed and inserted in the Frankenchrist
album with an additional sticker on the outside
shrinkwrap, warning buyers of the contents. The resulting
trial for obscenity nearly drove the label into
bankruptcy. [2]
The artwork caused a furor with the newly formed Parents
Music Resource Center (PMRC). In December 1985 a teenage
girl purchased the album at the Wherehouse Records store
in Los Angeles County. The girl's mother wrote letters of
complaint to the California Attorney General and to Los
Angeles prosecutors. In 1986 members of the band, along
with other parties involved in the distribution of
Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution
of harmful matter to minors. [3]
...it provoked a legal offensive against the band
beginning in April 1986. As well as having his flat torn
apart by the police, Biafra was charged with "distributing
harmful matter to minors," a charge which he repulsed on
the basis of the First Amendment right to free speech and
which was dismissed the following year. [4]
I remember being astonished by Giger's vision in Alien. For years I hunted down posters, calendars, and books, which weren't always available or affordable. Like others here, I relished the Dark Seed game for its tribute to Giger.
This takes me back to an earlier stage of my life, and makes me very sad. What a vision!
If you have a chance, check "Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune". They have one of his last interviews talking about how he got started and how that failed movie was the seed for his ideas for Alien with Jean Giraud.
