Computer Animation Arts

H.R. Giger - hugely influential artist known for his concept art and creature designs for Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) has died aged 74.  Read more here .  

At last - the official trailer for Ridley Scott's 'prequel' to Alien (1979). Tutorphil is VERY excited!

In common with the squirming erotica of   Hans Bellmer , the artwork of Hans Rudolf Giger  is a psychosexual pick-and-mix of lust and loathing.  Best known as the Oscar-winning designer for Ridley Scott's 1979 'spam-in-a-can' sci-fi shocker, Alien , H. R. Giger is the artist your mother warned you about.  His bloodless, monochromatic world is characterised by orifices, labial, anal, mechanical; by phalluses lethal with teeth; with pox-ridden babies and  pentagrams; with machines hewn from cartilage and bone.  Giger's view of flesh is not the glistening pink of the pornographer, but rather the waxy shine of the embalmist - worse, these are necrophiliac dreams - or nightmares more accurately.  As an 'artist', Giger is disparaged and dismissed - a one-trick pony and probable misogynist - and yet, the popularity of his work is undiminished, his design for the Alien unsurpassed in terms of true 'other-worldliness'.   "Giger’s art has oft...

Summary: Answering a distress call from a far off planet, the crew of the mining ship Nostromo come across the egg of a bizarre alien species. Director Ridely Scott enlisted Swiss artist H.R Giger to design all aspects associated with the Alien and its environment while Ron Cobb and Chris Foss were hired to design the human side of the film. Though equally striking, it was Giger’s gruesome surrealist vision which reverberated the most with audiences, influencing Science Fiction design for years to come. Analysis: “From the outset, it was Giger’s unique vision, a blend of nightmare surrealism with industrial design, that seemed to lift Alien out of the conventional, his creations shaping and challenging its production values. Alien is a perfect example of an image-driven film. (Raw, 2009:78) Raw, L. (2009) The Ridley Scott encyclopedia . USA:Scarecrow Press Inc. Release: 1979 Director: Ridley Scott Screenplay by: Dan O’Bannon Produced by: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill Genr...

Korean artist Jong Ho Ji's sculptures - fabricated from old tyres - recall the sleek menace of Giger's Sil from Species (1995) and the gods and monsters of ancient mythology. Some of Ji's creations appear powerful and militarised - like bio-mechanical weapons striding into battle, while others look like victims of ill-advised experiments. "An oneiric fascination with the terror and awe implicit to scientific discovery informs Yong Ho Ji's sculptural practice, for which the artist plays dual roles of skilled artisan and mad doctor. Meticulously layering cut strips of tire as the flesh for his "mutants," Yong Ho Ji models his creatures after endangered animals, mythological beings, and humanoids akin to his favorite superheroes. Underlying his unique brand of science fiction monster making is a startlingly specific, poetically lucid, ethical critique of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), based on his skepticism towards those ...