‘Alien’ creator H.R. Giger is dead
swissinfo.ch
swissinfo.ch
But this should come as no surprise to anyone who's lived a bit. One can be well respected for ones art, but be less respected (in some quarters) for how one acts.
Regardless, I am saddened by the news. It is a great loss IMO.
That said, I thought it was very funny to have this museum in the middle of this (small) medieval town.
You made me picture an Alien carved out of Gruyère cheese.
Also, cheese.
Just in case someone thinks this is a lame swiss joke: Gruyère is also the name of a _very_ famous cheese from that town, mostly used for Fondue and Quiche Lorraine.
The band loved it, but the record company refused to release the album. The band, placed in a difficult position, petitioned to Geiger to adjust the artwork. Geiger refused to bow to the band's and record company's demands, and in the end the record company had to hire an airbrush artist to remove it as much as possible... leading to the "shaft of light" along the neck.
[1] http://images.coveralia.com/audio/e/Emerson,_Lake_y_Palmer-B... (SFW)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_Landscape (NSFW)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenchrist
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpUeo6wR7M4&list=PL0BD020825...
http://www.markprindle.com/flouride-i.htm
East Bay Ray and D.H. Peligro don't speak quite as directly about the band's break-up, but their interviews and perspective are interesting too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MBaEEODzU0
[EDIT: I mean MOST DEFINITELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!!]
It was this piece that first gave me that odd moment we're seeing a lot of in this thread as I had always assumed Giger was a contemporary of Escher or even earlier. Seeing Windowlicker was dated 1999 really gave me a surprise.
But I stray OT.
I think something is lost with it being on Youtube. It compresses away some of the edits and glitches that sync up so perfectly with the music.
Having said that, here's an apparently higher quality version of it on Youtube:
If it's hard to communicate - you cannot accomplish much.
Also: vale. A talented artist with a distinctive voice.
Only later did I read it and become fascinated with science. Guess what I do now?
It's amazing how much this man did for the world through his work. Very influential to many people in many ways.
He will be missed.
Exobiologist at Weyland Industries?
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/art/all/01777/fact...
Celebrate his life today by watching Alien!
edit: I suspect that I saw Aliens before Alien, and therefore already had an expectation of what it would look like. Thanks to the sibling/cousin comments for explaining that :)
You mean there is another version where you see it earlier? Whose stupid idea was that?
Second note: I'm noticing already other comments focusing on how much knowledge we have outside of Alien, almost like punk rock posturing. It's okay to like something that's popular and beautiful! Watch Alien! This is not an underground punk band guys, a great genius has just died. =)
Klaus Flouride, the bassist for the Dead Kennedys had mentioned in an interview from 2003 that personal differences between band members, regarding the "Work 219: Landscape XX (penis landscape)" painting, were the breaking point determining the band's breakup:
...the Frankenchrist thing was, say, a final straw as far
as [Jello Biafra] going in a different direction than what
we wanted to do. I felt that the poster itself was shock
for the sake of shock value. We'd shocked people before,
but we'd always tried to have a point behind it. I didn't
see the point he was making. But we didn't quit after the
lawsuit happened. We quit when he decided that that poster
was gonna be in there one way or the other, and we could
take a hike if we wanted to. So we said, "Well, why don't
we call it 'Jello Biafra and Dead Kennedys?,'" since
that's what it was becoming anyway at that point. [1]
And then...
The poster was printed and inserted in the Frankenchrist
album with an additional sticker on the outside
shrinkwrap, warning buyers of the contents. The resulting
trial for obscenity nearly drove the label into
bankruptcy. [2]
The artwork caused a furor with the newly formed Parents
Music Resource Center (PMRC). In December 1985 a teenage
girl purchased the album at the Wherehouse Records store
in Los Angeles County. The girl's mother wrote letters of
complaint to the California Attorney General and to Los
Angeles prosecutors. In 1986 members of the band, along
with other parties involved in the distribution of
Frankenchrist, were charged criminally with distribution
of harmful matter to minors. [3]
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Kennedys#Frankenchrist_an...
...it provoked a legal offensive against the band
beginning in April 1986. As well as having his flat torn
apart by the police, Biafra was charged with "distributing
harmful matter to minors," a charge which he repulsed on
the basis of the First Amendment right to free speech and
which was dismissed the following year. [4]
But there were lots of album covers, and not everybody who chose Giger's work stirred up quite the same shitstorm as the Dead Kennedys.
Some of the other album covers Giger's artwork has graced, include the likes of Glenn Danzig, Debbie Harry, Carcass and Celtic Frost.
Edit: whoops, I didn’t read your comment correctly. I don’t remember where you see its full shape, the airducts is the most plausible place as far as I remember.
I remember being astonished by Giger's vision in Alien. For years I hunted down posters, calendars, and books, which weren't always available or affordable. Like others here, I relished the Dark Seed game for its tribute to Giger.
This takes me back to an earlier stage of my life, and makes me very sad. What a vision!
If you have a chance, check "Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune". They have one of his last interviews talking about how he got started and how that failed movie was the seed for his ideas for Alien with Jean Giraud.
RIP H.R. Giger