Hans Ruedi Giger (/ˈɡiːɡər/GHEE-gər; German:[ˈɡiːɡər]; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his
airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as "
biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for
pastels,
markers and ink. He was part of the
special effects team that won an
Academy Award for the visual design of
Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating
the titular Alien itself.[1] His work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum in
Gruyères,
Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including
album covers, furniture,
tattoos and video games.
Early life
Giger was born in 1940 in
Chur, the capital city of
Graubünden, the largest and easternmost
Swiss canton. His father, a pharmacist, viewed art as a "breadless profession" and strongly encouraged him to enter
pharmacy. He moved to
Zürich in 1962 where he studied architecture and
industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970.[2]
Career
Giger's first success occurred when H. H. Kunz, co-owner of Switzerland's first poster publishing company, printed and distributed Giger's first posters, beginning in 1969.[3]
In 1998, Giger acquired the
Saint-Germain Castle in
Gruyères, Switzerland, which now houses the H.R. Giger Museum, a permanent repository of his work.[8]
Personal life
Giger had a relationship with Swiss actress
Li Tobler until she died by suicide in 1975.[9] Tobler's image appears in many of his paintings. He married Mia Bonzanigo in 1979; they divorced a year and a half later.
Giger lived and worked in Zürich with his second wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger, who is the director of the H.R. Giger Museum.[10]
On 12 May 2014, Giger died in a Zürich hospital after suffering injuries from a fall.[11][12][13][14]
Style
Giger started with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings. For most of his career, he worked predominantly in
airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal,
nightmarish dreamscapes. He also worked with pastels, markers and ink.[2]
Giger's most distinctive stylistic innovation was that of a representation of human bodies and machines in cold,
interconnected relationships, which he described as "biomechanical". His main influences were painters
Dado,[15]Ernst Fuchs, and
Salvador Dalí. He was introduced to Dali by painter
Robert Venosa. Giger was also influenced by Polish sculptor
Stanislaw Szukalski, and by painters
Austin Osman Spare and
Mati Klarwein,[16] and was a personal friend of
Timothy Leary. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich from 1962 to 1965, and made his first paintings as
art therapy.[2]
Other works
Giger directed a number of films, including Swiss Made (1968), Tagtraum (1973), Giger's Necronomicon (1975) and Giger's Alien (1979).
Giger created furniture designs, particularly the
Harkonnen Capo Chair for a film of the novel Dune that was to be directed by
Alejandro Jodorowsky. Many years later,
David Lynch directed the film, using only rough concepts by Giger. Giger had wished to work with Lynch,[17] as he stated in one of his books that Lynch's film Eraserhead was closer than even Giger's own films to realizing his vision.[2]
Giger also applied his biomechanical style to interior design. One "
Giger Bar" appeared in Tokyo, but the realization of his designs was a great disappointment to him, since the Japanese organization behind the venture did not wait for his final designs, and instead used Giger's rough preliminary sketches. For that reason Giger disowned the Tokyo bar.[18] The two Giger Bars in his native Switzerland, in Gruyères and Chur, were built under Giger's close supervision and they accurately reflect his original concepts. At
The Limelight in Manhattan, Giger's artwork was licensed to decorate the VIP room, the uppermost chapel of the landmarked church, but it was never intended to be a permanent installation and bore no similarity to the bars in Switzerland. The arrangement was terminated after two years when the Limelight closed.[19]
Giger's art has greatly influenced tattooists and
fetishists worldwide. Under a licensing deal
Ibanez guitars released an H. R. Giger signature series: the Ibanez ICHRG2, an
Ibanez Iceman, features "NY City VI", the Ibanez RGTHRG1 has "NY City XI" printed on it, the S Series SHRG1Z has a metal-coated engraving of "Biomechanical Matrix" on it, and a 4-string SRX bass, SRXHRG1, has "N.Y. City X" on it.[2]
Giger is often referred to in popular culture, especially in science fiction and
cyberpunk.
William Gibson (who wrote an early script for Alien 3) seems particularly fascinated: A minor character in Virtual Light, Lowell, is described as having New York XXIV tattooed across his back, and in Idoru a secondary character,
Yamazaki, describes the buildings of
nanotech Japan as Giger-esque.[citation needed]
Films
Alien (designed, among other things, the
Alien creature, "The Derelict" and the "Space Jockey")[20]
Aliens (credited for the creation of the creature only)
Alien 3 (designed the dog-like Alien bodyshape, plus a number of unused concepts, many mentioned on the special features disc of Alien 3, despite not being credited in the theatrical version)
Prometheus (The 2012 film includes "The Derelict" spacecraft and the "Space Jockey" designs from the first Alien film, as well as a "Temple" design from the failed Jodorowsky Dune project and original extraterrestrial murals created exclusively for Prometheus, based in conceptual art from Alien. Unlike Alien Resurrection, the Prometheus film credited H. R. Giger with the original designs.)[24]
Alien: Covenant (the 2017 film includes the Alien creature, "The Derelict" spacecraft and the "Space Jockey" designs from the first Alien film)
Korn's
Jonathan Davis commissioned Giger to design and sculpt a microphone stand, with the requirement that it be biomechanical, erotic, and movable. The contract allowed for five aluminium microphone stands to be made, but Davis purchased only two of the three to which he was entitled. The design of the microphone stand was later adapted to Giger's Nubian Queen, transforming it into a fine art sculpture.[25]
Helped to design the first professional video clip of "
Böhse Onkelz" called "Dunkler Ort" (dark location) from their album Ein böses Märchen ... aus tausend finsteren Nächten, which was released in 2000.
Ibanez Guitars released a series of H. R. Giger Signature Models with artwork on the body.[26]
In addition to his awards, Giger was recognized by a variety of festivals and institutions. On the one year anniversary of his death, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the series The Unseen Cinema of HR Giger in May 2015.[29]