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| The man himself. |
A sad farewell to H.R. Giger, the man who shaped so much of my life. Sorry this is so belated...
Beyond the influence of my parents, Giger* is likely the person who had the biggest impact on my life and the direction I have chosen for myself.
"When I was a young boy, I was obsessed with skulls and mummies and things like that."
H.R. Giger
I always enjoyed drawing, and from early childhood I had a natural flair for it- and this gave me an appreciation for other people's work. While I was in my early teens my mother showed me the film Aliens, knowing full well I was going to love it (out of sequence, I know, but it still holds up on its own). I remember being blown away by the creature design and immediately became interested in not only the 'creation' of movies, but who could have possibly imagined such a nightmare. That, as I'm sure it did for many others, led me to the works of H.R. Giger- who had earned an academy award for his work on the first Alien film**, designing the creature itself as well as the desolate landscape of the planet where the ill fated crew of the Nostromo first encounter it. That's when I started to take art seriously; not just as an interest but as a possible career. Aliens soon became one of my all-time favorite movies.
Giger is the reason I excelled in art at school, submitted the work that I did, and pursued the subject beyond mandatory education... I may no longer seek art as a profession (well, I still do a little freelance work here and there), but it's certainly shaped who I am today.
Giger is the reason I excelled in art at school, submitted the work that I did, and pursued the subject beyond mandatory education... I may no longer seek art as a profession (well, I still do a little freelance work here and there), but it's certainly shaped who I am today.
"You get talent when you discover the ground of your pain."H.R. Giger
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| His work on Alien earned him international attention, and rightly so. |
Whatever your personal opinions on his work, whether they're a kind of morbid and immature kitsch*** or a deeply unsettling and surreal look into the physical and sociological environment surrounding us, there can be no denying the level of talent and imagination required for their creation; talent and imagination that H.R. Giger had in spades...
"Some people say my work is often depressing and pessimistic, with the emphasis on death, blood, overcrowding, strange beings and so on, but I don't really think it is."
H.R. Giger
Goodbye H.R. Giger, may you forever ride the ghost train home.
February 5, 1914 - May 12, 2014.
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| A typical Giger piece; a surreal and Freudian sado-masochistic exploration of feminine form and bio-mechanical organs. |
*It's pronounced "Geager", like eager. not as in "Geiger counter".
**James Cammeron infamously cut H.R. Giger out of production for his sequel to Alien, choosing to work on the creature designs himself. However, Giger was subsequently rehired by David Fincher for the 3rd installment-creating what many consider (myself included) the Alien's most awe-inspiring interpretation.
***I said to my tutor "you dismiss Giger because you call his work Kitsch, but you're hanging all this shit by Andy-fucking-Warhole around the room? You don't see any irony in that?" What a clueless dick.
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