Essay: An artist in focus.

In this essay I will be analysing the work of H.R Giger. I have applied the knowledge gained from researching this artist into many pieces of my work. I have used the surreal atmosphere for a surrealism art activity which is located on my blog. I have used this knowledge in my work as I like working with surrealism and it is easy to create art work than some other artists that I have looked at. I have also chosen this artist as I have looked at him before and quite like the work that he has produced over the years.

H.R Giger was born in 1940 in Chur in Switzerland. When Giger was young the blackest places would interest him, he even wore black clothes when he was allowed to dress himself. He played in dark areas, one of those areas was under a table of a windowless room.  Giger found the circus the most interesting in his youth, he would go to almost every performance using the endless varieties of secret entrances in order to watch without having to pay. Giger went to a Catholic kindergarten which, there was a lot of praying and if you did something naughty you were shown a picture of Christ's face streaming with blood, this is what caused Giger to like the sight of flowing blood which caused him to create a sculpture of a head that was bleeding. Giger spent 6 junior-school years at a 'model school', Giger had a teacher who taught him to model, draw and set build. Giger changed subjects every year to avoid repeating a class but was failed a math test, Giger was unable to afford to repeat a year and was off to Lausanne where he received his first English lesson. (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

Giger was sent to Grisons architect as a trainee at the age of 18 for lack of good grades. He was prompted by his love of drawing. In the event of bad times in the future he was guaranteed a safe profession of construction draughtsman. He had created a ‘Ghost Train’ which was a one-way ride which started at the entrance of Storchengasse 17 and was led via a double hairpin bend to a swing door. Giger and a group of his friends had created skeletons, corpses and monsters to go in the corridor and had stolen low-voltage battery lamps from bicycles in order to give the corridor an eerie feeling. After three years at elementary school Giger looked at books by Karl May and Edgar Wallace, he then moved on to thrillers such as “The Waxworks” and “The Phantom of the Opera” in which he struck that his ghost train was ‘rather primitive’. He then converted a room to a black room and refurbished it for a place for jazz sessions. (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

Giger’s first publication was in 1959, the “Atomkinder” (Nuclear Children) which he used to sketch in the margins of plans were published in underground magazines such as ‘Clou’ and ‘Hotcha’ and in the Chur Canton school magazine.In 1966 Giger produced pictures that originated from his dreams. His parent’s house had a stairwell that had a secret window, Giger would imagine gigantic and bottomless shafts in pale yellow light. Giger’s neighbour told him that there were two subterranean passages in Chur, since it was closed up by a locked door it inspired Giger to draw sinister images of a monstrous labyrinth where danger awaited. (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

In the summers of 1966 – 69, Giger produced sculptures in addition to his ink drawings. His sculptures were “Bettler” (Beggar), “Lebenerhalten” (Preserve life) and his first E.T for F.M. Murer’s film “Swiss-made”. In an age where the classic words of the Surrealists – “As beautiful as the unexpected meeting, on a dissecting table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella” – could become reality and perfectly achievable with an atom bomb. There was also a surge of interest in biomechanoids. (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

In 1968 people saw Giger’s publication of his “Biomechanoids” screen-print portfolio, Giger understood these as a harmonious fusion of technology, mechanics and creature. In 1963 Giger developed a 3-section design of his drawing, “Atomfreak”.Giger’s work has evolved over the years, from starting with ink drawings and sculptures to airbrush work of biomechanoids to furniture sculpture. Giger also made the Xenomorph from the “Alien” movie, he painted almost 30 pictures in 3 months. (ARh+, 1991)

 

Giger’s work was set in dark and eerie places with biomechanoids or mysterious creatures that only he could create. He would “reach back into our biological memories”, one of his pieces of work was inspired by a German refuse collection in action. Giger took pictures of this and created different versions of this passage, he was using psychedelic painting in an attempt for every possible reality.

There was more than one Passage that he made, each one was different in order to show different versions of this photo that he took, one of them looks like an eye as there are lines coming from the middle which looks a little like small

veins. The top right of the image on the right looks like the eye.

Another looks like the refuse is melting and the liquid is running down into the passage, this is on the left, bottom right of the page.

There is also one that Giger created which looks like a woman’s private part entrance in place of where the refuse collector normally is, two others also look like objects being pushed into the passage, these look like the male private part. (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

These are all the different passages that Giger created.

Each of these were painted with acrylic onto cardboard / wood.

These images are from the HR GIGER ARh+ book.

Giger’s work was created using an airbrush, Giger believes that you have only truly mastered the airbrush when the technique is no longer visible in the picture. Although he then decided to abandon large airbrush works and moved to pastels, markers or ink. Giger had mostly worked on paper or wood surfaces using acrylics or inks, whichever he deemed best to use. (Wikipedia, n.d.) (HR GIGER ARh+, 1991)

In the ARh+ book,  in the foreword, Giger is described at the official portrait photographer for the Golden Age for Biology and that his work disturbs us because of its enormous evolutionary time-span and how it shows us clearly where we came from and where we are going. (ARh+, 1981)

Giger’s work evolved over the years, between each media, or between his biomechanoid paintings. These are the most memorable from his alien work, as it was in the move, which made people look at his acrylic, ink and airbrush work. He also created furniture designs, the Harkonnen Capo Chair was for a movie of the novel Dune which was to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky but was directed by David Lynch years later. Giger has also had two Giger Bars built in his native Switzerland in Gruyères and Chur, these were built under his close supervision and reflects his orininal concepts for them accurately. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

When Giger first began his work, he did not attract many people but after some time his work became well known and brought people’s attention to him and his creations. His Alien received a lot of good feedback as it was shown in the movie ‘Alien’ and became well known. Giger’s work on the Alien movie won him an academy award and brought his artwork to the attention of those who didn’t know about him already. (H.R. Giger’s Alien: A Brief History Of The Man And the Monster, 2012) Many people loved Giger’s work and bought his creations as it inspired them, they also paid tribute to him when he parted which shows that many people’s views on Giger’s work were good.

 Giger passed away in 2014, 12^th May after sustaining injuries in a fall. When Ridley Scott heard about this news he said: "I am very saddened to hear of Giger's passing. I think back on how committed and passionate he was, and then consequently, all the security we built up around his 'lock up' studios at Shepperton. I was the only one allowed the honour of going in, and I absolutely enjoyed every hour I spent with him there. He was a real artist and great eccentric, a true original, but above all, he was a really nice man. He will be missed." (Sci-fi surrealist HR Giger, creator of Alien visions, dies in fall, 2014)

H.R Giger has left a legacy with us when he passed away. His acrylic, ink and airbrush art work, his sculptures and his Alien creation. Giger took his work to that dark and biomechaniod place which would have inspired a younger and newer range of artists. His work has greatly influenced tattooists and fetishists worldwide. Under a licensing deal Ibanez guitars released an H.R. Giger signature series which, this is another legacy for Giger. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

He has challenged how we think of Surrealism, instead of something to do with a lighter side of the subconscious or dreams, he has taken a darker way which has given Surrealism a modern edge. I myself am inspired by Giger’s work as I have used some of his art to influence my own work, the dark eerie settings and biomechanoid world. His legacy will be lived through his work for a very long time and influence many others along the years, his biomechanoid world is very interesting and hard to not have an impact. His Xenomorph creation has lived on in the movie ‘Alien’ and even though it has been slightly adapted to a modern look, it is still from Giger’s work and whenever they see this alien they know what it was created by no one else but Giger.

This is the piece of art work that I will be analysing by H.R Giger.

This piece of art work shows the two pentagrams on each side, one the right way on the left with a white creature hanging onto it while the reverse on the right hand side has a dark creature hanging onto it. The background looks to be covered in pipes and iron bars on the sides with a naked woman figure in the white sections that are just about visible. There are also two snakes, one wrapped around each pentagram. In the middle is a demon looking person as the body looks human of some sort while the face looks to be of a three horned bull / creature. There are two entwining snakes in front of the creature. Above this creature is a naked female with arms and legs outstretched on what looks to be a half hidden pentagram.

There are many formal elements used in this image, the main ones are line, pattern, texture, shape and tone. There are lines almost everywhere which separates between each part of the art and strengthened certain parts of this image, the texture adds to this as it makes the background look more 3-d with the pipes round shape as well as the human like figures, it also emphasises a dirty and mechanical look. There is a pattern to this image, although it’s not entirely clear, both sides are somewhat symmetrical, both sides have a pentagram with a creature of light or darkness clinging onto it. So, if you were to slice the image straight through the middle, most of it would be the same, with a few differences. This image lacks colour but makes up for it in tones, the colour-less image emphasises Giger’s dark, eerie and mysterious work, the creatures have heavily toned blacks and greys which grabs your eye almost instantly as you look closer to see what these tones are trying to create, while the lighter tones catch your glimpse while you scan over, they also make you look twice to properly take in this image.

Although this art work doesn’t show a human person exact, the interpretation of creature and human mixture give it a better portrayal. The closest you get to a human being is the half concealed naked woman in the background.

Trying to interpret this piece of work can be very difficult as there can be more than one interpretation. But what I see is a creature in the middle between two sides, the light side and the darker side, while the female being outstretched is unable to decide which one. The creature like man with the snakes seems to be in the middle, as if the one who is the gate to each side. However it also looks like there is no easy option to decide, as if both the light and dark will always be there.

This is one of my favourite pieces of art work from Giger, I have also created a few pieces of work that was inspired from this exact work. I think that it is a very successful piece of work and has shown Giger’s work in numerous ways. I quite like the creature in the middle and each pentagram’s side. The dark and eerie background emphasis this effect. I myself wouldn’t change anything about this at it would ruin something as beautiful as this.

References

ARh+. (1981). In HR GIGER ARh+ (p. 4). Hollywood.

ARh+. (1991). In Taschen, HR GIGER ARh+ (pp. 48, 57).

H.R. Giger’s Alien: A Brief History Of The Man And the Monster. (2012, May 31). Retrieved from What Culture: http://whatculture.com/film/h-r-gigers-alien-a-brief-history-of-the-man-and-the-monster.php

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In Taschen, HR GIGER ARh+ (p. 46). Gaby Falk, Cologne.

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In HR GIGER ARh+ (pp. 16, 34).

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In HR GIGER ARh+ (pp. 8, 10).

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In HR GIGER ARh+ (p. 14).

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In HR GIGER ARh+ (p. 70).

HR GIGER ARh+. (1991). In HR GIGER ARh+ (p. 44).

Sci-fi surrealist HR Giger, creator of Alien visions, dies in fall. (2014, May Tuesday). Retrieved from theguardian: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/13/hr-giger-dies-alien-artist

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from H. R. Giger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger

 

Different art paths: Anime and Manga

Art can even be extended to things like anime and manga. Manga which can be literally read as 'whimsical drawings' are comics that was created in Japan or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language. Anime which is a shortened form of 'animation' are Japanese animated cartoon videos.

Design with an art movement

We were told to choose an art movement that we liked and to choose a piece of art from that movement. I chose Surrealism and chose this picture, I then gathered some information about the piece and who it was by. This chosen image was then placed onto a T-shirt design. This is the outcome.

First hand research

I have been to a portrait museum in London where I have gotten pictures of art work that I liked. Out of all that I took, these two were my favourite ( and they were one of the few that weren't blurry ) These were from the portrait gallery. I had also been to the national gallery museum but nothing caught my attention.



This was the first picture that I took. The woman in this picture is also a actress for the movie, Harry Potter, she plays as Bellatrix. When I saw it I was expecting a darker picture, something to go with her actor character but was surprised to see an autumn setting. ( The little plaque under the picture said this was an autumn evening ) The picture looks quite old, as in set in old times, due to the pale oranges, yellows and pinks. The lack of outline on the house behind shows that it is not as important as the woman who is in the middle, the darker lines indicate that she is the main attraction for this painting. Although this painting has that olden look / feel to it, her face looks to be more modern, as if you were looking at a person in modern time, in an olden setting. This is why this painting was one of my favourites out of all the others, also because she was my favourite character from the Harry Potter movies.




This was the second picture that I took, this was in the same room as the first picture, but on the opposite wall. What got my attention was the gold crown on the mans head and how that stood out from the dark background. Although he isn't wearing bright colours, you are grabbed to the attention as his forward posture almost looks as if he is watching you closely. The background wasn't that easy to see what was going on as it had many dark greens and blues that any buildings or objects were masked. It did however look like a very old building behind, with a cobble looking road. I don't remember exactly as it never got my attention as much as the man with the crown. I was also more intrigued on his clothing, it looks to be a soldier uniform, like a general. Even though this painting is quite dark and eerie, I do think that this is a beautiful painting as you aren't bored of looking at it due to its darkness, but it brings you in to look closer to decipher. ( I didn't look at the plaque for this painting so I am unable to say what is actually going on )