An interesting fact about H.R. Giger is that in addition to designing costumes and sets for the movie Alien, he also worked on an abortive attempt to create a Dune movie more than a decade before David Lynch. The movie was to be directed by one Alejandro Jodorowsky, who by all accounts envisoned an intensely surreal Dune, totally different from both the book and Lynch's interpretation. Before the project was killed by the studios, he had, besides Giger, Jean Giraud for art, Pink Floyd for music, and Salvador Dali to play the Padishah Emperor. I can barely imagine what such a movie could've been like, but it is probably best for the world that we will never know.
The H.R. Giger museum is in Gruyeres, Switzerland. This is very convenient because Gruyere cheese comes from Gruyeres. It's very interesting to see his work in person, because there is a dimension that isn't communicated in books, and that is size. Most of his paintings are huge, occupying whole walls, some being twelve feet in length. The donkeys with penises on their foreheads being violated by a biomechanical pseudopod from a vagina machine are much more disturbing when they are that large. The museum holds much of the original art Giger did for Alien and Dune. Also, one can appreciate the massive attention to detail Giger applied.
Also, Giger did several works of sculpture that are best appreciated live. There is a wonderful dining room set, consisting of table and chairs, that is outstanding: the back of each chair is a woman's spine, the legs of the table are fetuses. And it's all in a matte black finish. Pseudo_Intellectual indicates this set was intended for use by the Harkonnen in the aforementioned movie.
The gift shop accompanying the museum sells many of his posters, as well as his books, such as Necronomicon.
Editors note:
Giger died in a hospital on May 12, 2014 after having suffered injuries in a fall. He was 74 years old.