HR Giger: The Monster Maker

foreign [Music] hi everyone blind dweller here for today's video I wanted to honor another popular request on this channel that I've seen pop up quite a few times in my videos today I wanted to discuss and share some works by one of the most fascinating painters and sculpturists within the Realms of dark and unsettling art an artist who would explore and push boundaries within a genre of Arts known as fantastic realism an artist who would create biomechanical worlds of architecture and ominous beings From Another Universe that would continue to influence many creatives who reside even beyond the art world of course the artist I'm referring to is the famous Swiss artist H. R Giger even if you haven't heard of him before you may have certainly seen his art before or more to the point if you're a fan of the alien movies then you'll be interested to hear that the design of a now worldwide famous creature the xenomorph is a concept of giga's incredibly dark and visceral imagination in fact the design of many of the sets props and architecture especially within the first film were all made possible because of the artist we'll be looking at today I will be truthful though although I'm a huge fan of the alien movies until recently I have not been overly that familiar with his other work in fact it was only because of the behind the scenes features in my alien DVD collection but I was first ever introduced to his art having said that though since whenever I have come across his work again every so often whether that be in a book on his work or me just scrolling through Instagram there is always something so striking to me about his style and so for today as per popular requests I'd like to share and discuss some of the most brutal and mysterious artworks of H. R Giga as well as shedding some light on the story behind his career and what may have influenced imagery so Doom inducing that it would inspire a design for one of the most terrifying movie monsters in pop culture welcome to another video everyone these are the monsters of HR giga [Music] before we get stuck in I'd just like to quickly apologize profusely in advance for any potential mispronunciations of any names words or places in this video for some reason mispronouncing certain words is a curse of mine like no matter how many times I look up the correct way to pronounce a certain word or name it's always hit or miss every time so as always if I do say anything wrong just let me and the others know in the comments below Hans Rudy Giga was born in Kur in Switzerland on February 5th 1940 to parents hands Richard Giger and meligy gamaya he would also have an older sister named Iris who was seven years his senior despite having a strict father who would prove later down the line to have little patience for art Geiger and his older sister were treated kindly by their parents living a somewhat modest life in an apartment above the pharmacy where their father worked as a chemist however other sources state that as Giga was born during the midst of the second world war his mother was constantly worried about the risk of a bomb attack and so Giger and his family would spend most of his earliest years and flims a ski region about half an hour away from core the exact details of a trauma that Giga experienced in his childhood varies from source to Source it would seem though it is commonly agreed that his upbringing during World War II would contribute heavily towards his personal anxieties and his youth the fear of an attack from their neighboring country would constantly linger within the family which subsequently would rub off on giga he would remember the light bulbs in the house being usually a bluish dark color to help the house look invisible to any aircraft above not to mention that as he Grew Older the threat of a cold war would also hover over his head with a terrifying Prospect of a nuclear attack it was seen the only thing that would prove to ease his constant anxieties and Nightmares was a process of sketching and drawing in a sense he would directly respond to his fears by reimagining them in pictures that he would alter a trait that would prove to be the Bedrock of his artistic approach later in life many moons later as Giga would progress and finally graduate from school his father still believing art was quote a breadless profession insisted his son would follow his footsteps into Pharmacy in 1962 however Giga would instead follow his passions and study architecture and Industrial design at zurich's school of Applied Arts shortly afterwards in the mid-60s he would operate as an interior designer in his spare time though Giga would frequently practice some fine-tune his distinct style and craft by producing ink drawings oil paintings and polyester sculptures it would not be until the tail end of the 60s that Giga with the help of persuasion from his close friend brazilo Schmidt would walk away from interior design altogether and devote himself fully to his art by this time Giga was perfecting a star that he would later Define as biomechanical creating creatures and scenery that ride the fine line between being organic and robotic almost cyborgian if that's even a word alright I guess it is then okay cool in 1969 Giga would receive further help from another close friend and getting his art off the ground an art collector named H.

H Kuntz he was also a co-owner of Switzerland's first poster Publishing Company who would distribute giga's first posters worldwide it would not be until well into the 1970s though that the world would begin to take full notice of his truly One of a Kind imagination [Music] foreign so interesting about H. R Giger is as well as having a unique style of art his career in itself is also quite unique compared to most other artists at least the ones that I normally feature on this channel although Giga would first start featuring his art in galleries as the 70s went on with his quasi-sexual imagery at first being regarded as so offensive by the locals that some would even spit on the gallery's Windows when they walked by the main key to his success was his later contributions towards movie concept art not to mention by this time he was forging a status as one of the world's leading airbrush artists with his signature style of intricate ethereal visions of a Macabre depicted with a minimal but effective palette of murky Grays and deep blacks however before we dive into giga's movie concept art Endeavors it would be more appropriate to take a look at one of his earliest commissioned works that came to be in 1973 with his artwork used for the rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer and their album titled Brain Salad Surgery the band would meet Giga in April that year when playing a concert in Zurich where Giga at this time was currently residing band member Keith Emerson and their manager would visit the artist's home after the concert and they would be Spellbound by what they saw once such early work Emerson was drawn to was giga's skull trip Tech titled landscape 19. when Emerson first saw it he knew Giga would be the perfect fit for the artwork of their new album Emerson would comment on the visit as follows my promoter friends insisted on driving me to giga's house I remember it was a fairly modest Bungalow from the outside until he went in the interior Decor was overpowering Gothic to the extreme from floor to ceiling his unique airbrush technique had transformed a simple room into a cathedral Giga had gone three-dimensional his toilet had arms coming out almost engulfing the sitter I noticed the arms had drip feeds going into them other Decor consisted of gas masks End quotes now I'm not overly familiar with Emerson Lake and Palmer it's not my kind of music to be truthful as a result I don't own a copy of this particular album myself so I'll mostly be focusing on the artwork here but I'll quickly give some context to the album as describes in the February 2020 article on louder sound.

com titled how H. R Giga and ELP created the brain surgery salad cover the original album came housed in an elaborate design the outer sleeved featured a piece of giga's monochromatic biomechanical artwork that boasted a human skull within an industrial mechanism however in the center was a circle depicting the flesh and blood face that would have covered the skeleton the original sleeve was split down the middle both sides opening outwards revealing underneath a human female face sometimes rumored to be the face of giga's then wife actress Lee tobler with alien-like hair and various facial markings assumed to be scars already we can see the trademark imagery that would become more and more familiar with the metallic skeletal patterns presented in the inside image and The Relic industrial looking details on the outside work though this finished product we're now presented with would go through an interesting transformation beforehand as the article continues to reveal the original title for the lp was whips and skull on you basically a euphemism for fellatio Giga found such Concepts and are thrilling to experiment with and would later comment on the experience as follows the obvious thing was to combine lips the male member and skulls those elements flowed into the picture nevertheless Keith suddenly informed me that the title of the album was going to be Brain Salad Surgery I was dismayed until he explained to me that this expression likewise connoted fellatio end quote incidentally the artwork would at first consist of a robotic phallus beneath the chin of a lady's face on the outer sleeve situated just above the new rounded ELP logo that Giga had also created although this was not replicated on the lady's face on the inner sleeve it nevertheless caused problems for the bands with their record company to quote Emerson once again after much deliberation we reluctantly had to appeal to H. R Giger to tone down the phallic object in front of a subject's mouth until it looks like a shaft of light End quotes [Music] only a year before one of giga's biggest breaks of his career the nine-year relationship between him and his wife Lee ended tragically with her taking her own life and events known as the second celebration of the four would be held among giga's circle of friends in Richter school which simultaneously represented the inauguration of a club and a memorial for Lee although Giga would remarry in later years philosophy would leave a terrible emptiness within Giga over time and on many occasions imagery of Lee would make appearances in his paintings however by 1977 word of his talent and skill were not ceased to continue reaching every corner of the world that same year he had also released his first major published book on his artwork titled Necronomicon now this book is actually something I wanted to get a copy of myself but when I looked online the average hardback copy cost nearly 500 quid there's just no way I'm not bloody Maid of money though thankfully I did manage to find a few bits and pieces from within this book while Scavenging online the book would be a massive success with many copies released in many languages across the world there are so many wonderful examples of his artwork within this book so before we jump straight into how we worked on the alien movie I think it's worth taking a quick look around this one is titled A Crowley the beast66 completed in 1975 and inspired by one of history's most infamous occultists Alistair Crowley who bizarrely enough also created some strange and surreal paintings himself a video idea for the future maybe let me know in the comments either way Giga would apparently cross these paintings of Crowley and would also Garner great interest in Magic and the Occult which again would be made clearly evident by the many illustrations of his within Necronomicon what gigafam within Crowley's Works were mostly portraits of Crowley's friends whom Giga can help but notice were made to look very evil paintings of women too were very Sinister looking as opposed to giga's frequent style are presenting them as Elegance an almost goddess-like beings so for me whenever I look at this particular piece it appears to be almost like discovering what it might look like within the minds of someone like Crowley who both fascinated and eluded giga comparatively similar to Crowley in some aspects Giga was also fascinated in ancient Egypt something that could be relayed in his imagery displayed in biomechanoid 3.

according to One Source I found titled alien explorations when Giga was roughly six years old his older sister Iris took him to see a mummified Egyptian woman at the lichester Museum in core The Mummy was down in the basement with amputated hands and feet Giga would be immediately horrified but Iris laughed at him feeling his pride had been somewhat mocked by her the young Giga every Sunday would go to see The Mummy before closing time and stand right in front of it for long periods of time eventually he would come to see it as beautiful Giga also noted that she had quote an old smell about her and this too would Fascinate him memories of a smell would later be an inspiration for him when he started to draw and use the airbrush he stated how he appreciated that in ancient Egypt death was an important part of their culture and death in turn was a huge factor of giga's creativity when looking at biomechanoid 3 you could almost interpret what's presented in the center as something similar to a sarcophagus as if honoring an alien Cleopatra who's been uncovered in some strange archaeological dig sites you could also argue that these many pipes could allude to his memories of breathing in the old smell of a mummy that remains so vivid to him since his childhood another breathtaking piece is titled National Park produced in 1975. again we're presented with chaos mechanical gears and tubes that protrudes and weave through a wall of metal and flesh from this example alone we can see so many reminiscent features that make us think of the alien movies and as it so happens this kind of terrifying and bizarre imagery within this book of nightmares would Inspire one of the most terrifying science fiction movies of all time during the early stages of making a 1979 movie Alien its director Ridley Scott was handed one of the very first copies of Necronomicon by screenwriter Dana Bannon during a discussion on what exactly the alien creature would look like upon opening the book and discovering the hair-raising image of what would be known as necronom 4 completed in 1976 the concept of the xenomorph would be realized it's phallic head its snarling mouth and its creepy extraordinarily beautiful body shape would be just what Scott and O'Bannon had in mind for the monster of their movie and were convinced that this strange and allegedly Disturbed artist named Giga was the perfect man for the job as their conceptual artist now I can talk about the Alien movies till the cows come home it's one of my favorite franchises ever but I want this video to be mostly focused on Giga and his art so I'll try to keep this brief and concise as mentioned in the behind the scenes documentary called The Beast Within the making of alien Ridley Scott was adamant that Giga need not have to illustrate any fresh or new ideas for the movie so enamored and stunned by giga's work he wanted the alien elements to be exactly how he saw it in the book seeing the quote humanoids by a mechanoid insect as threatening but also beautiful with sexual connotations fitting the notion of this Beast being one that is designed by nature to stab and Claw out of the body of another living being Scott would fly to Zurich to meet Giga for himself when he arrived at giga's house he too would be amazed by the various sculptures paintings and ornaments that were splayed everywhere around the house Giga as always was excited with the project and more than happy to help but again it was made perfectly clear from Scott that the existing style and look of his drawings were already perfect he was asked therefore to design the egg the Facehugger the chest burster and of course the Beast itself Giga would in fact make an appearance in the same documentary and he would comment on his experience designing the monster as follows quote I didn't want it to have eyes because it makes the monster more dangerous it's more scary because you never know where the monster is looking end quote unsurprisingly Giga was able to design the main creature in very little time at all adjusting only relatively small details such as the shape of the tail and the removal of the eyes the elaborate costume of the xenomorph creature would include things like Rolls-Royce parts rib bones and even reptile vertebrae Giga would then eventually make his way to England from Zurich to work on the other concept ideas with the special effects team what was supposed to be a three to four week stay turned out to be a seven month long visit upon the film's release it was a groundbreaking success and would even land Geiger a nomination for an Oscar in 1980. [Music] following the success and the fame gains from Alien I was surprised to find that the more I researched Giga the less information I could really find in regards to his career after the release of a movie he would of course continue to work tirelessly releasing his artwork in exhibitions worldwide he'd also continue releasing art books including a sequel to Necronomicon simply titled Necronomicon 2.

again a very expensive book to buy nowadays so if you have a copy of either of these books consider yourself very lucky looks like they're becoming quite the collector's items anyway in a sense despite Giga gaining notable Fame his career would remain relatively quiet from that point onwards up until his death in 2014. even when the 1986 sequel aliens first began production Giga was surprisingly not called upon again to be a concept artist by the film's director James Cameron despite giga's award for his previous work it would later be revealed in an apology letter from Cameron to Giga that this decision was made in order to as Cameron put it put his own unique stamp on the project feeling the risk of being quote overwhelmed by giga nevertheless Giga would continue to work on other well-known films throughout the rest of his career including Poltergeist 2 Alien 3 and species as well as a legendary unmade film Alejandro dodorovski's Dune skipping slightly ahead here but sticking to the subject of movies the fourth alien film titled Alien Resurrection released in 1997 would purposely leave his name out of the project not even a notable mention and by the way this is probably the most batched insane alien movie of a bunch in my opinion like even to this day I still can't decide if I like it or not according to mentalfloss. com Giga didn't work on the alien franchise's fourth installment but he certainly had a legitimate claim that any design work codes and incredible debt to his original designs Fox however seemed to disagree omitting his name from her credits entirely an angry Giga sent off a letter to Fox quote the creatures in Alien Resurrection are even closer to my original alien designs than the ones that appear in Aliens and alien 3.

why does fox not give me the credit I rightfully earned all I can wish them is an alien breeding inside their chests end quote wow Savage geeker I kind of respect that fair play by the end of the 80s Giga would install his first design of a total environment in Tokyo which would be known as the Giga bar though being a hard-working perfectionist he was Giga would not be satisfied in its execution and so he personally supervised the interior design and opening of a second bar in his hometown of core four years later and yet another gigabar would open in Switzerland on April 2003 known as the museum H. R gigabar located in Chateau in San Jamar of a medieval wall city of gruyere just from looking at the photos of this place I honestly think it's so impressive to see the strange living walls for skeletal furniture and biomechanical figures from his paintings become three-dimensional and displayed so beautifully and elegantly must be really thrilling to experience again write down in the comments if you've ever been lucky enough to visit because I'm very curious right now to maybe check it out for myself one day as the full name of a bar suggests it was built as a four-story museum known as a HR Giga Museum a first opened in June 1998. and still to this day currently houses the largest collection of giga's artwork than anywhere else in the world around the time the Giga Bar opens at the Museum many retrospectives and Galleries and other museums around the globe will continue to honor his works Giga would eventually work alongside Ridley Scott again for the 2012 Alien prequel movie Prometheus before production Geiger provided over 30 concept sketches for the designs of architectural structures Transformations and creatures sadly however by May 12 2014 due to a complicated fall Giga would pass away in a hospital in Zurich taking with him an unknown quantity of Unfinished and unreleased projects [Music] H.

R Giger is one of those artists and not only left a legacy behind for so many aspiring artists who love to delve into the darker side of expression but when you see the overall effect his artists had on pop culture it really is a one in a billion kind of situation in my opinion the imagery of the xenomorph is so iconic and recognizable now but it came from one man's imagination an imagination that even the artist himself was reportedly afraid of back in the 70s as his art finally began to reach New Heights even then no one had really ever seen anything like it some didn't even know how to react to his art that had so many unnerving sexual Fantastical and hallucinogenic overtones and themes that also might IAD stayed relatively consistent throughout most of his life one of the main criticisms I hear when it comes to giga's artwork is that sometimes it appears quite repetitive it's a fair enough argument I guess but personally I don't blame an artist who sticks to what he or she knows works best and don't forget Giga created art for specific reasons the main driving force behind his Creations Was Fear pure untapped Terror that would create Visions in his head that genuinely Disturbed him feeling the best way to cope with such anxieties was to make physical sense of them by laying them onto paper or in the sculpture it was that attachment to fear and his Fascination and what would make his artwork not only scary but incredibly wondrous each time you would experiment with what imagery to create or what tools to use to make them he would do it with such care and affection blurring the lines between threatening and beautiful to a point where it makes me wonder if Ridley Scott had chosen any other artist to A system with the design of his monster would the film franchise even be as successful as it had been I guess underground scheme of things it's impossible to say for sure but with absolute certainty there has never quite been a mind like his ever since within the art world to a point where even experts in film and media would have to step outside their very own industry just to have a piece of this creative genius for themselves [Music] thank you for watching this video I hope you found it interesting and even if you're already quite familiar with alien and giga's work I hope I still managed to give you one or two new facts for you to chew on here and there before I go is that time again for Arthur's corner here I get to share some art sent in by one of my viewers and today I'm excited to introduce you to an artist named Harrow and his collection of beautiful photo realistic black and white paintings Harrow has had an interest in art since childhood he remembers one of his earliest Inspirations being the stained glass artwork he would notice while attending church on Sundays he had obsessively stare at these works of art and feel connected to the intricate details and faces and attire of the figures describing them as otherworldly Harrow is completely self-taught he would discover his preferred medium of oil paints in the early 2000s but it wasn't until 2010 when he began to focus on the properties of portraiture he'd become enamored in how Shadows highlights Contours and values work harmoniously and so he began to Aspire toward hyper realism thereafter Through The Eyes of a colorblind artist you can now see the progression of Harrow's black and white portraits throughout the years such as this recent painting of his depicting Pope Francis just look at the level of detail in this it's absolutely insane his influences include Francis Bacon Salvador Dali shitzwa byzinski Renee Magritte and H. R gig are oddly enough just to name a few many of Harrow's paintings currently reside in eight states and three countries in 2020 Harrow released his first photo book an all-inclusive coffee table book depicting his favorite art from the early days up until his current niche in portraiture he plans to release a new volume every year or so I strongly urge you to head over to his Instagram or browse through his website to check out more of his stunning paintings and give him some support via the links that you see here and in the description below if you two would like to potentially feature your art in an upcoming video I'd love to hear from you please send me an email to blindsweller gmail.