H. R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger (pronounced: GEE-ger) (born February 5, 1940) is a Swiss painter best known for his design work on the film Alien. Giger's Alien design earned him an Oscar. He is also well known for artwork on a number of popular records, including Emerson Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery and Debbie Harry's KooKoo. His artwork for the Dead Kennedys' album Frankenchrist was at the center of an obscenity lawsuit against Jello Biafra.For most of his career, Giger has worked predominately in airbrush, creating strange monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nightmarish landscapes. His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of biomechanics, a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship. His paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery and are considered disturbing by some. Some of his paintings also feature Satanic imagery, though Giger himself is not known to be a Satanist. He is largely inspired by Salvador Dali and was a personal friend of Timothy Leary.
He has also created furniture designs, particularly the Harkonnen Capo Chair for an unproduced movie version of the novel Dune that was originally slated to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowski (many years later David Lynch directed the film, using none of Giger's designs). Giger has also applied his biomechanical style to interior design, and several "Giger Bars" have sprung up in such diverse locations as Japan. His art has greatly influenced tattooists and fetishists worldwide.
H.R. Giger has produced concept art for:
- Movies:
- Alien
- Species
- Recording artists
- Public places
- The Giger Bar in Chur
- Museums
- Museum H. R. Giger in Gruyères, canton of Fribourg, Switzerland
