Demon Master - the little HR Giger Page

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Pelvic table and chair set designed and executed by Giger and now sitting in his Zurich studio. Photo by Les Paul Robley.Gigernormally she likes very muchwhat I do.LPR: Does she have any picturesin her home?GIGER: Yes, but not these greatsizes.LPR: You describe your work as"biomechanical" creations...GIGER: Uh-huh. Sometimes itlooks a little bit like techniquesfrom the last century. Similar toDavid Lynch. There are tubes,pipes and not very well-workingmachinery.LPR: Do you have many admirershere in Europe or are theymostly from the States?GIGER: I have a lot here. Themost I have in Japan. I have a fanclub there.LPR: Why Japan of all places?GIGER: Probably because theJapanese people like very muchthe heavy stuff and cruelty in mypaintings. Maybe because of Godzilla... I don't know. I've foundthat young people—ten to twentyyears—are very well informedabout me. So, I'm very happy. Allof my books have been translatedinto Japanese, too.LPR: Your paintings are incrediblydetailed, almost masochisticallyso. You put so much intensityinto them. This must be a tremendousamount of labor for you.Have you tried to ease this intensityover the years? Or have theybecome more detailed?GIGER: At the moment I don'tdo these three-piece wall paintings.I do small ones. They are notmagical like "The Spell." It depends.I work best under pressure.LPR: Your book NY. City has somuch detail. It's very congested,filled with rhythmic patterns. Asidefrom Victory and a few otherworks, you paint in very mutedtones. Do you ever plan to usevivid colors?GIGER: Sometimes I try to usecolors, but it doesn't work really.I find that black and white ormonochromatic works best for me.Color is against the force. A paintinglike "The Spell" would beterrible in colors.LPR: Yes, you'd lose a lot. Justlike certain films such as "Psycho"would never look good in color.GIGER: Yeah, horrible.LPR: How do you paint? Do youmake sketches first?GIGER: No. It's all airbrushsprayed on paper which has beenglued to wood. I use mainly inkand white acrylic paint. Then I putlacquer over it to make sure nothingwet can destroy it. If someoneasks me to work for a film, I dosome sketches in bed and then I goto work it out. But when I do the
giant murals, I work just freshwithout any sketches. I start onone side of the painting and workto the other. I look to make sure it'sall linear and the angles are right,but I have no idea what's comingout.LPR: That's amazing. They lookso symmetrical.GIGER: I use paper that measures420 to 240mm. There's nobigger paper than that. But I can'tgo out with the paintings. They'rereally made for this room.LPR: What about the smallerones? Do you use the samemethod?GIGER: Yes. I just start from oneside and go to the other. I paintwhatever comes to my mind. Ihave no pre-planning. For instance,the ones with the penis and thebaby heads, I thought I'd just liketo do that.LPR: You've said many of theseimages come from your dreams.Do you have very bad nightmares?GIGER: Often, yeah. Like everybody,I think terrible things.LPR: My dreams are never thisbad.GIGER: No? This one (referringto "The Spell") is not bad. Do youfeel bad here?LPR: No, I don't feel bad here. Ilike this type of artwork. It's veryinteresting. To me, though, it is ascary place. I mean it's not somewhereI'd like to spend my holidays.GIGER: Yeah, that's true.LPR: How painful is it for you topart with one of your paintingswhen you have to sell one?GIGER: I don't sell the largepaintings. I sold a whole environmentto a collector and that wasquite hard. These in this room Iwill never give away. I want tokeep the whole thing together.When "The Spell" went to Japanon exhibit, I had another behind itthat took its place.LPR: Do you paint to music?GIGER: No. The only one I likereally is Miles Davis. I like piano,organ and violin.LPR: You've also painted albumcovers for pop artists. During the'70s, you designed covers for BrainSalad Surgery by Emerson, Lakeand Palmer, and KooKoo by DeborahHarry.GIGER: I did a lot of lips andpeople with no eyes for Emerson,Lake and Powell, but it never cameout. I did about eleven lips.LPR: Guns are present in muchof your work. What has been yourfascination with them?GIGER: Guns are like an airpistol or an air brush. You can dosomething from far away and notbe directly in contact with yoursubject.LPR: Do you shoot?GIGER: Sometimes. We have notmuch occasion here in the city.LPR: What about your fascinationwith dead cigar-chompingbabies and phallic symbols?A collection of masks done by Giger form a strange tableau set against mirrors.Photo by Les Paul Robley.
Page 1 and 2: Volume XVIII, Number 50FREE60,000 C
Page 3 and 4: the "right stuff" for Ridley Scott
Page 5: Giger sits beneath the triangular m
Page 9: GIGER: Boring things. Visions ofhel

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