Art News: RIP 'Alien' designer H.R. Giger; plus exhibitions and events

RIP H.R. GIGER
The designer of the 'xenomorph' from the Alien franchise; celebrated concept artist, sculptor and designer; maker of furniture, architectural designs and album covers; and a celebrated surrealist painter, Swiss-born H.R. Giger passed away this week, aged 74, after a fall at his home.

Image: Creative Commons (Wikimedia)

Born in Chur in Switzerland in 1940, Giger became a noted surrealist painter, developing his unique approach while studying architecture and industrial design in Zürich in the 1960s. His 'biomechanical' style, which fused elements of machine and architectural design with sexualised human figures, gained worldwide recognition after he won an Oscar as part of the visual effects team on Alien, Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi-horror film. Initially working in airbrush, he later moved on to create pen, ink and pastel works, citing Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dalí as inspirations.

Cover for Debbie Harry's Koo Koo album, by H.R. Giger.
Image via Wikimedia (Creative Commons)

A 2007 documentary, H.R. Giger's Sanctuary, showed the artist at work in his studio, and examined his legacy, which included iconic album covers for the likes of Debbie Harry and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Giger's designs proved incredibly popular with tattoo artists and fetishists, and he continued to work as a conceptual artist for filmmakers and bands, with his work playing a key visual role in films such as Poltergeist II, Species, and Prometheus. His poster for the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist, featuring his painting Landscape #XX, or Penis Landscape, saw the band sued for 'distributing harmful matter to minors.'

In later years, Giger leant his name and designs to 'Giger Bars' in his native Switzerland, designed bespoke pieces including a microphone stand for Korn's Jonathan Davis, and produced concept art for the Dark Seed video games. A recent film about director Alejandro Jodorowsky's lost adaptation of Dune showcased Giger's incredible designs for the aborted project, which could have seen him working closely with his hero Salvador Dalí. His designs for Jodorowsky's Dune, and his early paintings, were what attracted Ridley Scott to work with Giger on Alien. The H.R. Giger Museum in Chateau St. Germain, Switzerland maintains the largest collection of his work. In 2013, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle.

"I am very saddened to hear of Giger's passing," Ridley Scott told Time this week. "I think back on how committed and passionate he was, and then consequently, all the security we built up around his 'lock up' studios at Shepperton. I was the only one allowed the honour of going in, and I absolutely enjoyed every hour I spent with him there. He was a real artist and great eccentric, a true original, but above all, he was a really nice man. He will be missed."

EVENT: PHIL COLLINS @ COMMON GUILD
Winner of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts in 2001, and shortlisted for the Artes Mundi Prize in 2012 and the Turner Prize in 2006, visual artist and filmmaker Phil Collins is a celebrated contemporary artist, and in July, he is bringing his new film Tomorrow Is Always Too Long to Glasgow's Queens Park. The free screening, taking place on 19 July, is part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme. The film itself was commissioned by Glasgow's Common Guild gallery.

Phil Collins - Tomorrow Is Always Too Long, production still (2014) 
Courtesy Shady Lane Productions, Berlin and The Common Guild, Glasgow
Photo: France-Lise McGurn

Collins made the film with the help of cinematographer Michael McDonough and author Ewan Morrison. It is comprised of interviews with residents of the city of Glasgow, with whom Collins met in the past 12 months, visiting maternity hospitals, schools, community groups and social clubs, and asking them to 'sing songs, make predictions for the future, guide us through the city’s most famous prison and dance like there’s no tomorrow.' The film's soundtrack features compositions by Mogwai's Barry Burns, Cate Le Bon, Golden Teacher and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Phil Collins – Tomorrow Is Always Too Long, production still (2014) 
Courtesy Shady Lane Productions, Berlin and The Common Guild, Glasgow
Photo: France-Lise McGurn

"Who would have thought that my love affair with Glasgow would result in a night out in the park?" jokes Collins. "It’s been a roller-coaster ride over the last year. I began at Hotel Bar-L and ended up being Tartan Elvis’s roadie in Castlemilk. I learned about life by attending a full course of antenatal classes and danced the slosh every weekend at Frampton’s. Each encounter and exchange along the way has been a riot to say the least, and if the work can communicate a fraction of the joy I’ve had making it, I’ll die a happy man."

Tickets for the free event can be acquired here from 21 May.

Back at The Common Guild, the exhibition currently on show, until 7 June, features new work by Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri, whose art uses "ordinary objects and materials to address the very nature of sculpture and explore the relationship between use and value." On Thursday 22 May, their next Roundtable Conversation will explore Kuri's work, with artist Michael Stumpf and artist and writer Rhona Warwick in conversation. Visit the gallery's website for more details.

LAUNCH: DRAWING POSSIBILITIES @ THE STUDIOS
The Studios gallery in New Mills are launching their new exhibition The Studios #2 – Drawing Possibilities on 23 May. The exhibition runs until 27 June.

Art by David Shrigley. Courtesy of the artist and The Studios Gallery

Featuring work by Magda Archer, Lindsey Bull, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Jenny Core, Sophia Crilly, Carolyn Curtis Magri, Beatrice Haines, Stewart Kelly, Jim Medway, Klaus Pinter, Richard Shields, and David Shrigley, all of whom use drawing to observe, record and respond to the world around them, the exhibition opens with a preview on Thursday 22 May, during which artist Mike Chavez-Dawson will restage the curatorial performance ‘Reworked’, an ongoing project inviting collaboration and participation from artists and public.

LAST CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: HAZARD FESTIVAL, MANCHESTER
Taking place in and around Manchester city centre on 12 July, this year's Hazard festival, curated by Word of Warning, hÅb and The Larks, is 'a micro-festival of incidental intervention and sited performance, blurring the boundaries between art and activism.' They are seeking proposals from artists who wish to participate, with a deadline of 16 May. To find out more, visit the Word of Warning site.

An artist shakes her stuff at Hazard's hula hoop-a-thon at Hazard 2012
Image courtesy of Word of Warning

Previous years have seen artists such as Action Hero, Alex Bradley, Jordan Mackenzie, Juliann O’Malley, Katherina Radeva, Michael Pinchbeck, Richard DeDomenici and others creating site-specific works, including one project which saw the city's Cathedral Gardens wrapped in hazard tape; a series of 'flat-pack children' sited around the city streets; and an epic hula hoop-a-thon. Images from the 2012 festival can be seen here.

EVENT: WIRE COLLECTIVE PRESENT: HYDRA @ UNIT 53, BOLTON
Presenting art from students on the Bolton University MA Fine Art degree programme, HYDRA is a new exhibition featuring works by artists Dana Ariel, Donna Dowd, Alison Erika Forde, Hilary Jack, Thaleia Kavvada, Lisa Milroy, Sean Penlington, Narbi Price, Jason Simpson, Alison Timmins, and Gerard Young, curated by the Wire Collective. 

Image courtesy of Wire Collective

The exhibition launches on 24 May, and runs until 1 June. "The aim of the exhibition is to present examples of the diversity of approaches within contemporary art and foster connective strands between art and society," say the organisers. "We have very  strong views regarding the importance of art within culture and we believe that to truly  progress we must learn from the past, in both art and life." For more details, visit the WIRE page on Facebook.

EVENT: TRES ZINE POP-UP LAUNCH @ BALFOUR STREET, EDINBURGH
Re-launching in Edinburgh next week, Très Zine is a visual arts and culture ‘zine featuring local artists and creative types. They'll be celebrating their latest incarnation with a pop-up party at the 'One Night TrèsZine Den' on Balfour Street, with live comedy, spoken word, and live music from Passion Pusher, Adam Baker, Neil Simpson and Blood Indians.

Art by Paul Jon Milne, courtesy of the artist and Très Zine

There will be art on display from Hazel Gore, Jon Paul Milne, Sencha and James Findlay. Milne will be creating live drawings during the event. Featured spoken word artists include Sam Small and Max Scratchmann. They also promise home-made food, and if weather permits, a barbecue. 

“If you think you could be as into this as a blood lust hippo is into jam, then join us for what will be an afternoon of Tres satisfying groove,” say the organisers. The event costs £2. For more details, visit the event page.