Why isn't Giger's work more prominent in visual media?

[Koko Ricky]

Sure, his style is synonymous with the "Alien" franchise, and his work would have been featured in "Dune" if the project hadn't fallen apart and eventually rebirthed through David Lynch's eyes. Otherwise--with the exception of occasional tattoo designs and some of the aesthetics of video games like Doom--I have seen very few examples of media that either uses his work directly or is at least influenced by it. Every single person I've shown his work to has been utterly amazed by both its intricacy and its imaginative design; I even had a friend ask if one of his four decade old paintings was a work of modern digital art. Clearly, there is a mainstream fascination with his so-called biomechanical approach, and yet hardly anyone is scrambling to utilize his utterly unparalleled style. Thoughts?

[geo]

Didn't Geiger do a penis Batmobile for Batman 3 that they rejected.... but kept parts of for the version that made the movie?

[Patrol1985]

I assume the people you have showed Giger's work to were actually capable of giving those creations some thought. The majority of people would quickly dismiss it as "weird". That's why stuff like "Jersey Shore" is more likely to appear in media than anything done by Giger.

[Clonehunter]

Would you really want one style of something dominating any form of media? See too much of anything and you start wanting to see something else.

[Koko Ricky]

Geo, although your assumption is sound, Giger's dickmobile was more chromosome shaped. In all honesty, there's nothing offensive about it; it's a really cool design. I guess it was too "weird." I do agree that it would have sucked royally had Giger been overexposed. I'm just frustrated that the "Alien" films--and by proxy, "Prometheus"--are among the only films that made heavy use of his style, although the "Species" films, though much less popular, also utilized the artist. Just a couple more films that had a Giger look or directly involved Giger would be nice. Honestly, this post is partly my frustration at there not having been a Hollywood film (since Alien) that thoroughly immersed the audience into Giger's world. When I see his paintings, I find myself wanting to explore the environments, to see a narrative structure revolving around his bizarre creations. Maybe he really is just too surreal and nightmarish for the mainstream. Perhaps for the best.

[geo]

GoatLord said:

Geo, although your assumption is sound, Giger's dickmobile was more chromosome shaped. In all honesty, there's nothing offensive about it; it's a really cool design. I guess it was too "weird." I do agree that it would have sucked royally had Giger been overexposed. I'm just frustrated that the "Alien" films--and by proxy, "Prometheus"--are among the only films that made heavy use of his style, although the "Species" films, though much less popular, also utilized the artist. Just a couple more films that had a Giger look or directly involved Giger would be nice. Honestly, this post is partly my frustration at there not having been a Hollywood film (since Alien) that thoroughly immersed the audience into Giger's world. When I see his paintings, I find myself wanting to explore the environments, to see a narrative structure revolving around his bizarre creations. Maybe he really is just too surreal and nightmarish for the mainstream. Perhaps for the best.

Maybe I had it backward, his Vaginamobile was turned into a dick mobile.

[Inkie]

His art style was in the Darkseed series of games, though I hear those games aren't very good.

[geo]

Inkie said:

His art style was in the Darkseed series of games, though I hear those games aren't very good.

Yeah they were. I just played them not that long ago. Those were pretty fucked up games, but since they were one of the first point and click games to use real voice acting, the voice acting was terrible. The game didn't make all that much sense. But really point and click games never make any sense. If I remember correctly the main character had an alien in his head which made me think of MTV's the Head.

[MegaTurtleRex]

A lot of his art makes people uncomfortable I guess. It's a combination of sexual imagery and... not sure how to describe it, (un)corporeality I guess.

EDIT BY MOD: NOT SAFE FOR WORK

For example, this cyber-demon lady is basically getting spit-roasted.

[darknation]

I imagine it's because Giger is mental. Working with him is a colossal pain in the ass. Look at the work he did for Species, for example; they paid him to design a creature, and he said fuck the creature, have a Giant Penis Skull Train instead.

Rewriting your script, which previously featured a shit alien ripoff, to instead feature a Giant Penis Skull Train, is a somewhat traumatic event during the course of any movie.

Giger did not design the facehugger, nor did he design the chestburster. He conceptualized them and the concepts were shit. Giger did not design the Alien Queen; James Cameron did, in conjunction with Stan Winston.

Semi-related, it's tempting to associate Giger with Ridley Scott - despite the fact that Ridley never worked with him again after Alien - when in fact the association was with Dan O'Bannon, noted Hollywood hack. Plus the whole sexual horror thing has been done to death; Giger's shtick of adding penises to everything is, ultimately, weird at best and embarrassing at worse. If you send him back to the drawing board, then his inevitable impulse is 'not enough penises', so he adds more.

[Waffenak]

Because most of the people get disturbed around it

[FreddBoy]

Looking back, it seems that the bio machinery in the quake 2/4 games reminded me a lot of Geigers work. Not sure if it's coincedance or me being mental is another thing...

[dew]

dn has a point, the man has to be quite difficult to work with. That's most certainly why his Hollywood stint was so short. He's a brilliant artist, however. I recommend visiting his exhibitions if you ever get the chance, even if you're not an art person otherwise. The biomech, Necronomicon and Dune stuff is far more interesting than the few Alien bits.

[mrthejoshmon]

I never really liked Giger's works, it was either a boimechanical thing fucking something, getting fucked by something or fucking itself. Not to mention you can probably find a penis or a pair of tits in every orifice.

That doesn't appeal to me, and it makes me imagine Giger gets off to stripped down washing machines or something which is also a nasty image.

[darknation]

mrthejoshmon said:

That doesn't appeal to me, and it makes me imagine Giger gets off to stripped down washing machines or something which is also a nasty image.

NSFW garbage trucks, actually.

Don't click that if you don't like labia. Or the backs of garbage trucks. Or possibly the really quite offensive metaphor Giger's got going there.

[geo]

MegaTurtleRex said:

A lot of his art makes people uncomfortable I guess. It's a combination of sexual imagery and... not sure how to describe it, (un)corporeality I guess.


For example, this cyber-demon lady is basically getting spit-roasted.

I knew a chick in college that had that hanging in her bedroom.

The whole point of Alien (and Prometheus) was to make men uncomfortable. The 2 writers for Alien intentionally made men uncomfortable before Gieger. Getting face raped sucking a long appendage. Getting pregnant with an alien baby. The alien tail anal raped in the first movie. It was in the script, but I think the movie just has the tail go uh behind the guy then dart up. Could be the back, could be the posterior.

The alien's head being a giant dick was Gieger's idea though. Making it out of actual animal skeletons too. I've got a few Aliens documentaries over the decades explaining who did what where. Gieger was a great fit for the Alien movie if the purpose was to make men uncomfortable.

James Cameron then wanted to make men comfortable so he toted a shitload of marines with guns and made them impotent. Funny thing is Sigourney Wyver hates guns and didn't want to return to that sort of environment. So naturally she made it so Alien 3 had no guns, because after the first 2 movies she wanted to be a queen. She also said something in an interview about how she only got to keep 30% of her $1 million acting fee for the first 2 movies after management and taxes. That sounds crazy especially since she was the daughter of an NBC TV executive. I'm shocked she got so screwed.

Aliens (2) was written without Sigourney and Hicks was supposed to be the main character. It was all around Hicks, but then when she signed on... she was the main character. Kinda sad for Hicks I guess.

[Koko Ricky]

The funny thing is that, sexually, I'm fairly prudish (I'm 29 and, despite being in a committed relationship, still "not quite ready" for teh secks), and sex scenes in movies tend to make me either roll my eyes, or just want to fast forward. Giger is different, though. He presents sexuality in a deeply disturbing, horrific and nightmarish manner, which is a bit how I tend to see it, and his unavoidable tendency to blend eroticism, violence, Satanic iconography, technology and organic substrates together is truly unique; the fact that he has been copied endlessly is a testament to his influence. I have had sexual nightmares (in a few rare instances influenced by Doom/Quake) similar to some of Giger's work, so I relate to his style perhaps a bit more than most. I have never been so mesmerized by a contemporary artist. I do agree that his "moar dicks pls" aesthetic is bit immature at times, though.

[geo]

maybe he walked in on his parents having sex or maybe his black uncle raped him.

[MegaTurtleRex]

mrthejoshmon said:

I never really liked Giger's works, it was either a boimechanical thing fucking something, getting fucked by something or fucking itself. Not to mention you can probably find a penis or a pair of tits in every orifice.

That doesn't appeal to me, and it makes me imagine Giger gets off to stripped down washing machines or something which is also a nasty image.

You aren't really supposed to like art, from the artists point of view anyway. They just make an image\piece and the relationship between you and the image is all that matters really, if you reject or accept it that just says something about you.

That's the modern artsy spiel anyway, a lot of them are just talentless weirdos who film themselves vomiting naked. Giger has genuine skill though and definitely has developed a style of his own, even if it involves many, many penises.

[MegaTurtleRex]

geo said:

I knew a chick in college that had that hanging in her bedroom.

The whole point of Alien (and Prometheus) was to make men uncomfortable. The 2 writers for Alien intentionally made men uncomfortable before Gieger. Getting face raped sucking a long appendage. Getting pregnant with an alien baby. The alien tail anal raped in the first movie. It was in the script, but I think the movie just has the tail go uh behind the guy then dart up. Could be the back, could be the posterior.

The alien's head being a giant dick was Gieger's idea though. Making it out of actual animal skeletons too. I've got a few Aliens documentaries over the decades explaining who did what where. Gieger was a great fit for the Alien movie if the purpose was to make men uncomfortable.

James Cameron then wanted to make men comfortable so he toted a shitload of marines with guns and made them impotent. Funny thing is Sigourney Wyver hates guns and didn't want to return to that sort of environment. So naturally she made it so Alien 3 had no guns, because after the first 2 movies she wanted to be a queen. She also said something in an interview about how she only got to keep 30% of her $1 million acting fee for the first 2 movies after management and taxes. That sounds crazy especially since she was the daughter of an NBC TV executive. I'm shocked she got so screwed.

Aliens (2) was written without Sigourney and Hicks was supposed to be the main character. It was all around Hicks, but then when she signed on... she was the main character. Kinda sad for Hicks I guess.

You know I'd completely forgotten about that. Can't remember where I first read that interpretation of Aliens but it made the movie even more creepy.

edit\ sorry double post, can't delete :\

[geo]

MegaTurtleRex said:

You know I'd completely forgotten about that. Can't remember where I first read that interpretation of Aliens but it made the movie even more creepy.

edit\ sorry double post, can't delete :\

I've read quite a few Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection scripts. I have no idea if they're legit or not and if they're legit, why would a real writer just publish them? Such as the legendary (bad) Alien 3 script of 100 queens vs 100 loader machines or the wood planet.

Following the Aliens franchise has told me that Fox doesn't give a fuck about any movie. Time and time again I hear the Fox execs say that its the name that sells the movie. Knowing the writer of Wolverine 1 has reiterated the notion that Fox feels names sell movies and they don't care.

The 2 writers were writing separate movies and they came together and took elements from each of their movies and smacked them together to make one legendary movie. I'd need to rewatch the documentaries to refresh my memory what both the movies were.

Anyway, Giger.