Ripley to Purvis,Alien: Resurrection - the little HR Giger Page

"There's a monster in your stomach. They [indicates the smugglers] hijacked yourcryotube and sold you to him [indicates scientist Wren] and he put an alien inyou. In a few hours it will punch its way through your chest and you'll die. Anyquestions?""Who are you?«"I'm the monster's mother."- Ripley to Purvis, Alien: Resurrection"As for those responsible for this conspiracy: all I can wish them is an Alienbreeding inside their chests, which might just remind them that the "Alien Father"is H.R. Giger."- H.R. Giger to 20th Century Fox, Alien: Insurrection]

...AND AS THE FOURTH instalment inthe ongoing Alien saga drew to a close, the creature known onlyas Newborn was sucked out the spaceship hatch, Goldfingerstyle,leaving, the awe-struck audience to wonder if, superfluousjaw blockage issues aside, the following weren't the poormutant's last words: "Mother, Father, why have you forsakenme?"Fans of Fox's Alien empire know that Ellen Ripley was wellwithin her rights when she abandoned her baby in last year's criticaland commercial success, Alien Resurrection. But fanatics ofthe same franchise also know that the most fascinating moviemonster since the Universal originals was actually the brainchildof no fewer than three parents, Ripley not included.Of course, as history tends to prove, one parent in particularwas responsible for most of the child's development. Too bad hewasn't allowed to keep it.n the beginning,the only Alienwas an awkward,eccentricand dangerouslyintelligent young boy bornin Chur, Switzerland onFebruary 5, 1940. Hans Ruedi Giger's natural artistic talents - and hisdisturbing perspectives - were not to blossom until his late teens, atwhich point they spread like nightshade-fuelled wildfire. His yearsstudying industrial design at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich,from the ages 24 to 26, provided the first turning point in the radicalartist's life, as Giger intersected practical knowledge (landscapedesign) with personal interest (dreamscape depiction) in a disquieting,sexually charged manner. And if the first turning point forgedGiger's career, surely the second secured his future, when, 13 yearslater, the film Alien was unleashed.Giger describes the fruits of his vision as "Fantastic Art." An effectivesummary, insofar as the word "fantastic" can simultaneouslyconnote beauty, grotesqueness and unreality; when specificallyBY GARY BUTLERpdf created by www.littlegiger.comRue Morgue 9

Beauty, grotesqueness and unreality.'applied to an artistic viewpoint, it suggestssomething not just surreal but beyond surreal.And certainly, anyone familiar withGiger's art would agree that his creationscome from beyond.It's tempting to further qualify Giger's specialityas "futuristic" fantastic art. Easily theman's best-known work is his ever-expandingcanon of (again as described by Giger)"biomechanical" landscapes. Giger's conceptof biomechanics is brilliant in its simplicity,as the term's prefix implies a livingorganism, while its root insists on a machine.The artist's masterstroke came from applyingthis fresh, dark idea not to the obviouschoice - people - but to the obscure alternative:places. The master biomechanic doesn'tdraw living humanoid robots; he createsbreathing industrial cities. Populated cities,granted, but in this instance, the inhabitantsare a part of the landscape, and it builds them- they do not build it.Hence the futuristic reading of Giger'swork - for how else has the 20th centuryimagined humanity's future if not in terms ofa technological Mecca that surpasses itswildest evolutionary dreams?And nightmares.When Ellen Ripley and the doomed crewof the Nostromo answer a distress call inAlien in the far future (real time: 1979), theylearn that hell isn't other people so much asother species.Alien earned Giger an Academy Award forBest Achievement in Visual Effects. In retrospect,this is hardly surprising, consideringthat the man had been dreaming of the Alienand its environment - and capturing thosedreams in portraits - for well over a decadebefore the movie was even in its nascentstage.The most critical step in the evolution ofthe Alien creature came in the form of thecompanion pieces Necronom IV andNecronom V, painted by Giger in 1976 aspart of a larger series devoted to a symbolicrealisation of H.P. Lovecraft'sNecronomicon. Even at this pre-productionstage, the Alien was essentially complete;really, the only significant differencebetween the Alien in Giger's paintings andthe one that would grace the screen threeyears later was the long-headedness, so tospeak, of the Giger original (perhaps this is agood time to mention that the ever-dubbingartist uses the term "erotoscapes" to describethe majority of his pointedly sexual biomechanicallandscapes).Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon and directorRidley Scott became the aforementionedadditional parents of the Alien. Inspiredbeyond words by the pair of Necronom portraits- Scott is famous for having been ableto say little more than: "That's it!" - theyworked closely with Giger after 20thCentury Fox approved six original silkscreenprints that the artist based uponO'Bannon's script, and together the trio furtherdeveloped and refined the look and feelof the Alien and its setting.The result: a true monster.In more ways than one.Today, almost two decades later, as themillennium looms over the horizon, Giger'sAlien has become an almost mythical creaturethe world over. For the artist himself,though, it has likely become a chimera that isequal parts angel and albatross. The reasonsfor the angel are apparent; those for the albatrossare absurd. They are nonetheless real.One is a matter of insurrection. As cited inthe introduction, Alien: Insurrection is an onlineprotest housed on Giger's authorisedhomepage (www.HRGiger.com). The complaint:nowhere in the movie Alien:Resurrection is the artist credited for originalAlien design, though the origins of themovie's creatures are undeniable. It's hardlyarguable that this was an oversight on thepart of 20th Century Fox, as the companywas guilty of the same gaffe when Alien³was first released in 1992. That mistake wasredressed at Giger's rightful insistence; thesame, however, cannot be said in the currentcase."Alien: Resurrection is an excellent film,"Giger writes in a letter to Fox posted on thesite and dated Nov. 13/96, two full weeksbefore the official release of the movie."[But] what would it look like without myAlien life-forms?" Though Alien:Insurrection also displays support fromRidley Scott, Timothy Leary, Clive Barker,Harlan Ellison, Dan O'Bannon and Alien:Resurrection director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, thepower of rhetoric has done little to advancethe unfortunate artist's cause.The nature of Giger's other Alien albatrossis simpler, though just as ironic. As fate - andgood marketing - had it, a compendium ofGiger art was published late last fall. Namedafter the aforementioned website (sans thedots), WWW HR Giger com is by no meansthe first book of collected Giger art to gracea coffee table. But unlike its predecessors,which include the immensely popular HRGiger's Necronomicon, HR Giger's Alienand HR Giger Arh+, WWW HR Giger com isthe first book of Giger art to examine theman as a career artist. Think of it as his tickletrunk.While Giger's thematic interests haveremained consistent throughout his 30+ yearLandscape design and dreamscape depiction come together in "Landscape XVIII."10 Rue Morgue

Freudian Grip: the proposed (andrejected) sandworm from Dune.career, WWW HR Giger com introduces theworld to a visionary artist who creates muchmore than mere Aliens and who has neverhesitated to experiment with mediums ofexpression.Granted, the Alien was an afterbirth ofGiger's airbrushed erotoscapes, and it is forthose works that he is best known. That said,significantly less than the majority of thebook is comprised of either biomechanicalstudies or erotoscapes; the two categoriescombined likely account for 1/4 of the 280illustrations represented, though theirs areadmittedly the most lavish and sizeable whenincluded (employed mostly as chapterdividers).WWW HR Giger com also offers commentaryfrom Giger throughout; indeed, the artistdesigned the book himself. As his works arepresented for the most part sequentially, theresult is a biographical odyssey through aheretofore undiscovered country. Thoughonly a few true blue Aliens raise their headsfor the passers-by, the sights are still wellworth writing home about.Here are just some of the highlights. Giger"confirms" Freud's dream theory in the earlysketch series A Feast for the Psychiatrist. Heshows off his personal and professional furnituredesign and interior decoration, theprofessional aspect of which includes planningmaps and realised photographs ofGiger-Bars in Tokyo and Chur (featuring thelatter's bathroom, which inspires leg-crossing)as well as set design for a scrapped 1976film version of Dune. Giger displays whatare in his eyes the most important works inhis private collection of art, the contents ofwhich vary from the surreal to the surrealer(incl. Brus, Sandoz and one of his greatestinspirations, Kuhn). Some of his classic biomechanicstudies are presented in rich, gorgeous3D; Necronom IV is one of them.Pictures of the "open-air museum" of tattooedGiger fans receive an entertainingchapter. Album cover art evolution is examined,including the 1981 bio-mechanisationof Blondie's Debbie Harry and the 1993Cronenberg-via-Dead Ringers sculptureentitled Life Support for metal band Carcass'Heartwork. The equally Cronenbergian"killer condoms" are shown in both theirNecessity isthe mother ofinvention, butfor Giger, it hasbecome thefather of insurrection."Erotoscape: one of the many sightsalong Giger's Garden Train.developmental sketch phases and their fullyfleshed-(inside-)out phases; this section alsoincludes the obvious killer condom prototype:the Dune sandworm, from the failed1976 film project.Artistic variety aside, though, truly themost surprising sections of WWW HR Gigercom are humour-oriented, despite the factthat Giger undertakes every humorous projectwith an attitude of abject seriousness.His 1994 "modest" proposal plans for theSwiss transit system to be restructured in theshape of a pentagram must be read and studiedfor their arguable practicability to bebelieved. The chapter on Giger's real-lifebiomechanical Swatch watches features ajoke page that contains 13 types of timepiecesready to made upon commission, thebest being Gigers Watch-Off, with its acidfilled,ceramic housing to help the wearer'shand "timelessly fall away." And while it'snot immediately apparent, the Alien thatgraces the cover of the book itself is wearingskis (pictured)!The book concludes with photographs andplans of two Giger works currently underway,both inspired by the artist's originaldesigns for the 1995 movie Species. TheGarden-Train (now tracking in the artist'sbackyard) and the Giger-Museum (proposedto be built in the form of a spiral railway in agutted castle in Gruyère, France) are easilythe biggest visions that the man has everattempted to realise. Gaudy as it may seem,it's arguable that these works could potentiallybe the first physical step in whatpromises to be the very long road to actualsocietal bio-mechanisation. Then again,maybe he just has a different kind of onetrack mind these days.Regardless of the path that Giger choosesfrom hereon, there is no doubt that he willtravel it on his own terms. The greatest ironythat emerges from the Alien: Resurrectioncredit farce is that H.R. Giger is an artist whomust now cry out to be evaluated in the limitingterms of his most famous creation, asthe world continually fails to consider howmuch more he actually has to offer.Necessity is the mother of invention, but forGiger, it has become the father of insurrection.WWW HR Giger com paints the trueportrait of the man; that this brave book wasreleased only heartbeats ahead of Alien:Resurrection borders on tragedy. The combefore the storm? Certainly. And the tip ofthe proverbial iceberg, too.Keep up the good work, HR. In space, noone can hear you scream - but the audience islistening.Gary Butler is a company man who thinksthat "alienation" should never have beentwo words long. He is currently the editor ofWatch magazine.Beyond Hollywood: Giger's Alien continuesto evolve.Rue Morgue 11