All things considered, H.R. Giger is probably most famous for his single enduring contribution to Western pop culture--his designs for the classic 1977 horror/sci-fi film Alien, for which Giger later won an Academy Award. The nightmarish title creature was actually inspired by one of Giger's original creations from his "Necronomicon" collection.
H.R. Giger continues to produce fantastic works of art; his imagery, characterized quite often by sweeping tones of grey, green and black, and filled with images of surrealistic landscapes, grotesquely misshapen beings, and erotic figures, has left an undeniable influence in the world of fantasy art, film, and television (witness the decidedly Giger-esque look of the "Borg" from the TV and film series Star Trek: The Next Generation); in recent years, Giger also created designs for the films Species (1995) and Alien 3 (1994) and recently opened his own permanent gallery of sorts, the H.R. Giger Museum, in Switzerland.
Giger once said that while trying to pass through Dutch customs with a portfolio of his pictures, he was refused entry into the country. This was due to custom officers mistakenly thinking that his pictures were 'photographs'. "Where did they think I could have photographed my subjects?" he remarked. "In Hell, perhaps?"
H.R. Giger has had more than a passing interest in the occult, and many of his images incorporate symbols from the traditions of witchcraft and paganism, like the inverted pentagram on the forehead of the figure in this painting. The horns which spring forth from the face and head are the only obvious connection to the Biblical story of the city of Jericho, whose walls were toppled by Joshua's trumpet. Evident is this painting, too, is one of Giger's favorite color palettes: grey, green, and black. One can see how Giger's style lends itself easily to works of horror and the macabre (his designs were also utilized for the film "Poltergeist 2", but to lesser effect than in other projects like "Alien" or "Species"). In addition, many of Giger's works are based on the human face (see "Li" or any of the series of designs based on Debbie Harry of "Blondie" fame).
Inspired by a well-known painting by Arnold Boecklin titled "The Isle of Death", this is one of Giger's works which turns up frequently at exhibitions and in online galleries. The foreboding image was done in one of Giger's favorite techniques, that of acrylic on paper on wood. It brings to mind the stories of The River Styx from Greek mythology, or perhaps the Sumerian story of Inanna's descent to the underworld and subsequent imprisonment there. In this painting one can see Giger's 'biomechanical' style put to work, in the way the land seems laced with wires or cables of some kind, separate and yet integrated into the land itself (more about this later). Like many of his paintings, it challenges the viewer's mind to reconcile the natural and artificial worlds in one image, the organic and the synthetic, or, if you like, the living and the dead.
One of four "Spell" paintings designed to be considered as a whole, this may be one of Giger's more popular works from the 70's and deals again with the subject of the occult (see "Jericho", above). The work was done with airbrush, a technique in which Giger excels. In his own words: "The scene takes place over the chasm of a thin scraggy cathedral. This particular detail portrays a black mass. Now, I'm not in any way connected to this kind of church, but the world of magic has always held a fascination for me and this in turn left its mark on my paintings of the temple. Perhaps it also helped me overcome my fear of such forces, a fear so bound with my fascination."
When H.R. Giger published his Giger's Necronomicon in 1978, he borrowed the title and some of the inspiration from horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Among the works included in the portfolio was this image (one of the few Giger paintings which have actually hung on my wall at some point). The phallic imagery, twisted and surrealistic, is one of Giger's hallmark motifs, as is the vaguely organic appearance of the background. Incidentally, if this painting looks familar, it's because this is the work which director Ridley Scott chose to develop into the titular creature for the movie which would cement H.R. Giger's place in film design history for all time.....
More gothic horror story than science fiction space adventure, "Alien" opened in 1979, becoming a box-office sensation almost overnight.Its success meant it would be the first in a series of fims featuring this acid-blooded, chrome-fanged monstrosity, the stuff of nightmares (and this webmaster had his share of them, believe me). The creature, patterned after an original work by Giger (see "Necronom IV", above) was like nothing ever seen by moviegoing audiences up to that point, and it earned Giger an Academy Award. Although the distinctive style has been copied and imitated to the point of redundancy since "Alien" first hit the silver screen, and though Giger also designed other forms of the Alien as well as spacecraft and landscapes for the film, this beastie is the one creation which still haunts our collective subconcious.
Another image which was featured in Giger's Necronomicon. One of the things about Giger's work which gives it its otherworldly appeal is the way he subtly integrates sexuality into scenes which at first glance seem merely horrific or fantastic. In this painting, as in many Giger works, one is aware of an unnatural interaction between the organic and the inorganic; cyborg vitality as futuristic erotica. "Biomechanics" has actually become a recognizable style in its own right as a result of paintings like this, and one continues to see hints of it in the cinema and in the works of other artists as well. (Giger's influence was still in evidence, as a matter of fact, when the film version of "Dune" was finally made, by a diffierent studio and with a diffirent director & art designer, for release in 1984).
Okay....this was actually the first work (other than the film "Alien") which I ever saw of H.R.Giger. I came across it in a magazine back in 1979, when I was your average strange little kid of 9 years olf (I had a fun childhood). I didn't run across it again until I started researching Giger for this website, and though I was able to obtain a nice scan of it as you can see, I had absolutely no luck locating the English translation of the name of this work ("Speigelbild"). So if anyone knows anything about this painting, do fill me in, so that I can solve a question which has been bothering me for 21 years!!!
UPDATE!!! (10/28/04) Ok, ok!!! So many people have written in to help me out with this that I thought it was high time I changed it. The actual translation of "Speigelbild" is "Mirror Image", which, I guess is pretty self explanatory...so there you go. A big thanks to Jazdiyn Olsen, Shea, Mauricio, Mateo Hurtado, Jaala, Mr Sublasky, Jared Solmssen, Jako Kuhn, Steven M. Armstrong, Christin Niederle, Lee Kembel, Elizabet Mleynek, CJ Åkerberg, Margaret Hazzard, Da Bob, Malcom Lowrey, Kai, Allan Hamilton, M. Dobiasch, and anyone else I forgot to mention, for helping out with this one.
