HR.GIGER

HR Giger is considered one of the last and most important representatives of fantastic realism. The artist, born 1940 in Chur (Switzerland), discovered the water pistol during the seventies, developed his typical style and in the following years created his most famous pictures as well as the large-format book Necronomicon, which served director Ridley Scott as a visual template for Alien, the internationally successful film of 1979 that also earned Giger an Oscar. Giger’s record covers, which he created for Debbie Harry and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, are now considered to be some of the best in music history. Giger’s neo-myths located in a bleak technological world are known less from his groundbreaking paintbrush originals than from wild adaptations, reproductions and plagiarisms at all levels and branches of the cultural chain of production, whether whimsical horror merchandise, music video accessories, bicep tattoos or cyber-games.

As a favorite child of pop culture, teen posters and biker-wear, Giger was first recognized by “cultural studies” as a crossover phenomenon that could not be more contemporary.
Giger designed sculptures and furniture environments over the course of his entire career. Along with further film projects like Poltergeist II and Species, Giger collaborated with drug guru Timothy Leary, the Viennese actionist Günter Brus, and the surrealist Salvador Dalí. In 1998 Giger opened his own museum in Chateau St. Germain in the Freiburg town of Gruyeres, which presents his most important paintings and sculptures from the last four decades.

HR.GIGER

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