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... n to select the postmodern narrative was relatively simple. Artists generally categorised under the postmodern terminology generally make use of images, artworks and common everyday objects formatted and altered to create something today considered art. Giger's Harkonnen chairs make use of the shape and features of a human spinal cords and skulls, and many of his artworks include machine parts and / or sexual organs.
His dark and fantastic world is often a mirrored conglomeration of bits and pieces found around us and all of his female portraits are actual people, usually lovers, who's shapes and features are slightly altered by his imagination. they are therefore reinterpretations of these originals. If the modern world has become a 'Civilisation of the image' (Kearney, 1994: 1) with reality itself becoming a 'Pale Reflection' of this image (Kearney, 1994: 2) and with art becoming reproductions of the productions, then 'The Birth Machine' falls into this category. Analysis through a Postmodern Perspective In the course of the twentieth century, modern technological inventions became extensions of our muscles, our nervous system, our eyes and ears, and even our reproductive organs, to such an extent that the boundaries between biology and mechanical contraptions have all but disappeared. When we look for another characteristic feature of twentieth century, what immediately comes to mind is unbridled violence and destruction on an unprecedented scale. It was a century, in which internecine wars, bloody revolutions, totalitarian regimes, genocide, brutality of secret police, and international terrorism ruled supreme.
This is brought to life in the 'Birth Machine' by Images of war and violence. The destructive abuses of modern science and the nature and scale of violence committed in the course of the twentieth century gave this period of history distinctly chaotic features embodied by the 'Babies'. Yet another important characteristic of the twentieth century is the extraordinary change of attitude toward sexuality, of sexual values, and of sexual behaviour. The second half of this century witnessed an unprecedented lifting of sexual repression and erotic impulses worldwide. The fear of this sexual freedom is represented in the Birth Machine with Giger fear of Over-population, caused by sexual freedom and early experimentation of the young generation, premarital sex, promiscuity, popularity of common law and open marriage, gay liberation, and overtly sexual theatre plays, television programs, and movies. Almost all of these essential elements of twentieth century's 'personality' are present in Giger's art.
He masterfully merges elements of dangerous mechanical contraptions of the technological world with various parts of human anatomy. Equally extraordinary is the way in which Giger blends deviant sexuality with violence and with emblems of death. Skulls and bones morph into sexual organs or parts of machines and vice versa (Grof, 2002: 1) and bodies are transformed into fierce weapons to such degree and so smoothly that the resulting images portray with equal symbolic power sexual rapture, violence, agony, and death. If postmodern art can be described by Kearney as a 'momentous shift from the age of production to the age of reproduction', then Giger's Reproduced (excuse the pun) art is definitely postmodern. 'The Birth Machine' itself is an idea produced by the combination of the human childbirth mechanism and the inner workings of a pistol. The piece itself is a reproduction of a pistol, simply dissected. Not only is this art a reproduction of previous images, it itself has also been reproduced with an enormous statue of one of the 'babies's taking in New York city so that the image now appears to millions of people every day.
Various copies of the babies made out of iron are available also for purchase. Numerous reproductions of his paintings in poster form were created are promoted by Giger himself and each of the statues are created out of the same mould making each one as original as the next, enabling almost anyone to own an 'original copy' of Giger work. The Original 'Birth Machine' has also been reproduced by Giger himself, as a large, three dimensional iron cast copy which rests outside the front of the famous Giger museum in Switzerland. This makes few of Giger's pieces truly original because of the way in which he so freely reproduces them for the masses.
The posters are reproduced in the same way in which they were originally created, via airbrush, making them near perfect replicas. The 'Birth Machine' itself further champions repetition with the children as the rounds within the pistol being replicas of one another. The imagery of the gun is also a common sight in our everyday lives as it appears in almost all forms of media with the trigger a common image in this day and age, especially within movies. Giger also stereotypes the Babies in an ominous, somewhat monotonous way, the same way in which Andy Warhol does in his Marilyn Monroe Seriograph. Another image brought forth is that of war.
Factors influencing this conclusion include the metallic colour scheme and images we generally associate with war, including the rifles held by the children, the gun, the goggles and the seemingly starved children. If the Postmodern image is one that displays its own artificiality (Kearney, 1994: 3) then the world of Giger's art, including 'the Birth Machine', is as artificial as they come. Although it may be found on the other end of the usually boisterous and bright postmodern art world, the image is post modern nonetheless. Our modern world of Media Images and art Very few modern artists have also influenced Media and the film industry as much as what Giger has. He most famous for his designs of the Xenomorph aliens for the cult-classic 'alien (s) ' movie series as well as the 'species's erie's. He also designed equipment and Harkonnen chairs for the 'Dune' movie series.
Various record labels approached him to design CD covers for a impressive collection of metal and rock bands and he also recently designed the microphone stand for the front man of the internationally acclaimed band; 'KoRn'. His images are also used as covers for books, including his own, and many websites. Through his great influence of music, media and television, HR Giger has earned himself a cult-like following and enormous status. The Atom Children - Der Atom Kinder H. R.
Giger - 1963 We are grateful to our creators who at the time of the Big Bang instinctively hurled themselves to the ground and like good citizens counted to 15 in accordance with Switzerland's nuclear regulations. For otherwise we wouldn't be here at all. We atomic children don't want to moralize or reproach anyone; we simply want you to get used to us and grow to love us. But for you we can offer no guarantees, because as soon as we gain the upper hand you will be classed as abnormal and as a result may well have to suffer. Wir sind dunbar unseen Erzeugern, die sich beim grossen But gem " ass dem Schweizerischen Atomreglement reflexartig zu Boden warren und bad auf f"unfzehn z"allen, denn sons w"aren wir "ueberhaupt nicht Wir Atomkinder wollen nicht moraliseieren nieman dem Vorw " use machen; wir wollen einfach, dass ihr euch an uns gew " on und uns lieb ge winnt Nur f"ur euch k"one wir nichts garantie ren, denn sold wir in der "Ubermacht sind, were ihr als abnormal golden und vielleicht dander zu leiden haben Critical Evaluation I generally find myself disagreeing with the Post-modern theory. Although it does make many good and substantiated points, I find it difficult to believe that one; there is no original idea or image upon which the others thereafter are based and two; that nothing can be called and original work of art.
I find myself believing that some works do deserve to be credited with the label 'original'. Although the one of two of the images contained inside the piece of art may in fact be copies, the way in which they are brought forward, arranged and coloured have to be considered original in the artists or people viewing the art piece can not place it to anything within their memories. If an image is aesthetically pleasing to view and perhaps betters of equals the 'original' in its own unique way, I believe it to be deemed worthy to be called an original itself. On that note, are not most art reinterpretations of images or events portrayed differently because of the way the original is perceived by the artist?
One can then conclude from that that art is an original perception of a previously acquired image, and not simply a copy thereof. Giger's 'the Birth Machine', would therefore be his original interpretation of pre-perceived images forged together to form a piece of art. Conclusion The bond between art and the imagination is simply unbreakable. Although the imagination is able to exist independently of art, there is no way in which art would be able to survive independently from the imagination. Giger's imagination is one greatly influenced by a multitude of events, but primarily that of his traumatic birth. The images he is able to place into his paintings and sculptures are both extremely scary, dark and macabre and yet beautiful and artistic at the same time.
Where the premodern art forms may have been too limiting on the artist and modern art a lot more reserved, postmodern art enables the artist to explore endless possibilities when it comes to expression. Perhaps too many as a lot of postmodern artists can start to claim almost any replicated image as a work of art. The imagination should be able to run freely, but should still, even in today's world on the monotonous, try to avoid too much replication. Nonetheless, Hans Rudi Giger remains a living legend along with his tortured artworks.
Bibliography o Kearney, R. The Wake of the Imagination Towards a postmodern Culture. London 1994 o HR Giger. Giger's Necronomicon. Morpheus International. Beverley Hills. 1980 o Stanislav Grof, Review of Necronomicon Mill Valley, California, January 2001. (web) o web o web o web o web
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