Giger Lexicon

leading from
H R Giger's Art

Sorry, very much still in initial development. Probably really ought to give up on it because 
it doesn't seem to go anywhere really. Going nowhere appears to by myspeciality
(29th February 2016)


 

A  

Aleph
Giger incorporated imagery of character from the Doctor Who TV series story Doctor Who And The Curse of Peladon into a painting

Alien
A movie by Ridley Scott with a story by Ron Shusett and Dan O'Bannon, for which Giger designed the bit Alien beast, the egg, the space jockey and the derelict spaceship 

Ian Anderson
Lead Singer from Jethro Tull absorbed into the imagery of Mordor IV
(See:Ian Anderson)

Alpha Centauri
Character from  "Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon" incorporated into Giger's painting Aleph (see Aleph)

Angel of Death  
A painting by Ernst Fuchs that may have inspired Necronom IV ( See: Elongated head apparitions by way of Ernst Fuchs)

Aqualung  
A Jethro Tull album that may have found itself absorbed into the imagery of Mordor IV
(See: Mordor IV)

B

Ballard, J G
An author that Giger admired that wrote novels such as High-Rise, Crash and The Crystal World. Perhaps his novel Drowned World served as inspiration for Necronom IV in terms of the idea of the diving suit scene and the Triassic dreams

Bes
Egyptian beast god that found its way into Giger's The Spell I  (See: The Spell I )

Biomechanic Landscape II

Giger merged Fuseli's Nightmare with perhaps an image of Oscar Wilde.

Bishop-Fish
A mythical beast incorporated into Mordor IV

Böcklin, Arnold 
A painter admired by Giger

Bonzanigo, Mia 
Former wife and assistant of HR Giger

Bosch, Hieronymus
16th Century Dutch artist whose work influenced Giger. In his painting Demon (work 413), Giger connected his name with the musician William Onyeabor, because of the ONY shared by Hieronymus and Onyeabor, and then BO in Onyeabor and Bosch.

C

Cave Art
It appears that Giger found inspiration in Australian aboriginal cave art. In his Biomechanical Landscape from 1976, there are possible signs of imagery from cave art in Kimberley in Australia, and in his painting Assuan there is a suggestion of Nourlangie cave art in the central figure.

Celebes
Painting by Max Ernst featuring a creature that looks part tank, part diving bell, part vacuum cleaner and part elephant

Chest Burster

Jean Cocteau
Artist, film maker 

"Cristo Redentor"
Rio De Janeiro statue of Jesus Christ incorporated into The Spell

Cronenberg, David

Crowley, Aleister
Cthulhu

Cunningham, Chris


D
Daddy Longlegs of the Evening – Hope!
Painting by Salvador Dali that found its way into the inspirations behind Alien Monster IV

Dali, Salvador
Artist that much inspired H R Giger who also he met and befriended.

Darth Vader
Character from Star Wars that found its way into Giger's N.Y. City XVII Crowley

Delville, Jean
Delville's Treasures of Satan inspired Giger's Alien Monster IV and also his Idol of Perversity inspired the later cutaway painting of the Alien egg.

Derelict Ship

"Devil's Kitchen (or Stalingrad)" (Max Von Moos) 

"Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon"  (Doctor Who)

Duchamp, Marcel
Fountain sculpture incorporated into Witches Dance

Duckopelli
Has a cartoon duck such as Daffy or Donald duck with a gun in his mouth been merged together with Kokopelli of word association? (See: Necronom III)

E

Egyptian Book of the Dead

Elephant
Animal incorporated into Necronom III

Enigma of William Tell
Dali painting inspired by Swiss folklore character merged with concept of the band Jethro Tull and their album Aqualung in Mordor IV
(See: Mordor IV)


Eraserhead
A film by David Lynch much admired by H R Giger.

Erebor
Erebor was the name of the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit, where Smaug the dragon has taken residence. It featured on the book cover drawn by Tolkien for The Hobbit. Erebor sounded similar to the surname of musician William Onyeabor and so Giger merged elements from it into his painting Demon (work 413)

Ernst, Max
Max Ernst was a Dada and Surrealist artist who created works such as Celebes which inspired Giger when he painted "Necronom III" and "Robing Of The Bride" which entered Giger's painting Witches Dance.
(See: Ernst, Max)

Exorcist, The


F

Face Hugger

Fisher Price Activity Centre 
A children's toy of the 1970s which inspired Giger's Passage Temple Entrance.  
(see: Passage Temple Entrance )

Fountain  
A sculpture created by Marcel Duchamp that featurd a urinal placed on its back
(Marcel Duchamp)

Fuchs, Ernst
(See : Ernst Fuchs)

Fuseli, Henry
Artist known for his painting Nightmare. Giger merged Fuseli's nightmare with perhaps the face of Oscar Wilde  for Biomechanic Landscape II
(See: Biomechanic Landscape II )

G

Golem, The
A novel written by Gustave Meyrink, and featured illustrations by Hugo Steiner-Prag.

Sergius Golowin
Swiss mythologist and friend of H R Giger who provided the name for Giger's Necronomicon
(See: Sergius Golowin)

Gibson, William
Cyberpunk novelist who would feature references to Giger's work in one or two of his novels. His writings would also take inspiration from the Alien movie and the imagery from the old Heavy Metal comic books. His novels were in general admired by Giger. Gibson would also write one of the unfilmed Alien 3 scripts. A second draft was written of his script, supposedly by him but he only claimed to have written the first draft

Great Masturbator, The
A painting by Salvador Dali that inspired Giger's painting National Park

Guernica
A painting by Pablo Picasso that influenced Giger's paintings, Assuan and Anima Mia. The painting also references a succession of paintings that reference one another starting from Jean Delville's Treasures of Satan


H

Henu Barque
Ancient Egyptian ceremonial boat also known as the Sokar Funerary Barqu that entered into the design of the Space Jockey. Appears to have been referenced in Jean Delville's Treasures of Satan

I

Ice Lord
Character featured in Doctor Who series story "Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon"  that made its way in a transformed state into Aleph
(see Aleph)

Ice Warrior 
A reptilian alien race from Mars in the Doctor Who series story "The Ice Warriors" that was inspired by ancient helmet, that possiblly inspired the painting Necronom VII  
(See Necronom VII )

Illuminatus Trilogy
Series of books that inspired Giger's Illuminatus paintings

"Island of the dead" 
Arnold Böcklin painted several versions of "Island of the dead" and Giger payed homage twice to the work

J

Jethro Tull
English band that entered into the imagery of Mordor IV
(See: Jethro Tull)

Jodorowsky, Alexandro
Chilean film director who attempted to make the movie Dune, and Giger designed the Castle Harkonnen for the project

K

Kafka, Franz

Khepri, (Egyptian God)

Kokopelli
Mythological ancient American entity that found its way into Necronom II merged with Donald or Daffy Duck. Does that make it a Duckopelli.

Kubin, Alfred

L

Lancaster Bomber
Elements of this WWII aircraft bomber such as the gun pod and the gun turret have found themselves incorporated into Necronom II


Li Tobler

Lord of the Rings
A fantasy novel by J R R Tolkien, which Giger borrowed the title of and the name of a land mentioned in the book Mordor for two of his series of paintings


Lovecraft, HP

Lynch, David
David Lynch directed Eraserhead amongst other movies. Giger admired Lynch's work especially Eraserhead and would have liked to have worked for him. However David Lynch wasn't particularly interested in Giger's artwork but for a while thought that Giger might have borrowed his Eraserhead imagery for Alien. Anything to be said about troubled communication between the two might be put down to the fact that a situation never arose where they could talk face to face and put issues to rest in a happy conversation.

M

Mad Magazine
The humour magazine's fold in page seems to have been an inspiration behind Giger's Spell II


"Man In Serpent" (Olmec carving)
Ancient Mayan relief that was an inspiration for Giger's Necronom VIII

Man-Ape
Painting by Frank Frazetta used as a cover for the novel Conan, and becomes part of the "Manatee - Manitou - Manta-ray" word association.
See: Mordor IV

Manatee
"Manatee - Manitou - Manta-ray" word association
See: Mordor IV

Manitou
"Manatee - Manitou - Manta-ray" word association
See: Mordor IV

Manta-Ray
"Manatee - Manitou - Manta-ray" word association
See: Mordor IV

Mermaid
There's the idea that Manatees were mistaken for mermaids and the supposition that Giger wanted to create a mermaid from a Manatee and a Mantaray for Mordor IV and hence the "Manatee - Manitou - Manta-ray" word association, but had to use a sea lion and a Sting Ray instead.
See: Mordor IV

Merman
Mythical creature that found its way into Giger's Mordor VI
See: Mordor VI

Meyrink, Gustave 
Author of novels such as The Golem and the Angel of the West Window

Mia Bonzanigo
Giger's girlfriend and work assistant during the production of Alien, and they would marry soon after the film production

Mike Oldfield  
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells inspired along with the record label art , the imagery in The Spell II.

Monk-Fish  
Mythical creature that entered the imagery of Mordor VI.

Mordor
The Mordor series, named after a land in J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings incorporated ideas showing popular myths and mysteries such as the Nommo of the Dogon tribe legends, Mermaids, mermen in the form of seamonks and sea bishops.

Snakes as sausage like forms travelling through pneumatic capsule pipelines, and other meat stuffed products such a Nommo inspired moonhopper haggis... Other concepts to be found there are still slowly being worked out (See: Giger's Mordor series)

Mordor IV
The urge to have an entity incorporating features of mermaid made from a Manta-Ray, Manitee and Manitou never quite made it into Mordor IV, but instead a sea-lion and a Sting-Ray face made their way into it along with references to Dali's Enigma of William Tell merged with the pose of the lead singer of Jethro Tull and this was also connecting with their album Aqualung.

Moos, Max Von  
Giger referencd Von Moos painting Devil's Kitchen in his painting Alien Monster III

Mummification Couch 
Egyptian ritual furniture that appears to have entered through imagery of the mummification ritual into Giger's Necronom IV

Mummification Ritual
Egyptian imagery that appears to have entered into the imagery for Necronom IV

N

The Necronom Series 
The name which would have been inspired by the name of the Necronomicon also may well echo the idea of the name Micronauts which appear to have been used as reference for the Necronom series since they share the letters CRON. (See: Giger and the Necronom series)
 
Necronom I
Head from Ernst Fuchs' vision merged with Dinky SPV toy vehicle


Necronom II
A three faced entity with phallic tongues. Inspired by an Egyptian scarab pectoral owned by Tutenkhamun as well as possibly the Watchers of Cirith-Ungol in Lord of the Rings and a three faced statue in Jean-Cocteau's Testament of Orpheus. 

Necronom III
A vast humanoid face almost like the head of the creature from the original version of the movie The Fly and its sequel, transfrmed into an elephantine WW2 bomber gunner pod with a cartoon duck transforming into a Kokopelli making him a duckopelli, and the pod is transforming into the bomber's rear gun turret and into a diving bell somewhere along the transformation into Max Ernst's Celebes

Necronom IV
A semi humanoid face almost a combination of a motorcyclist and a sea creature that appears to have started off at the highlighted part of the fac of the golem from Hugo Steiner-Prag's illustration biomechanised to become like an Egyptian Eye of Horus incorporating elements from Ernst Fuchs "Triumph of the Sphinx" , etc . This painting would be a key inspiration for the design of the big beast of Alien.  

Necronom V
The painting had been inspired by Easter Island sculptures such as a Maoi Kava-Kava ancestral figure and a Rei Miro sculpture, and also the male character from the Pakal Votan tomb lid turned into a woman riding on, bonded together by the structure of a Fisher Price Family Camper toy and the logic of a Micronaut Microtron robot toy. Perhaps a sommelier knife entered into the mix. 

Necronom VI 

Necronom VII
Ice warrior from Doctor Who that referenced the old Anglo Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet 

Necronom VIII 
Micronaut Hydrocopter action vehicl, Dali's Sleep and Olmec "Man In Serpent" also named "Quetzalcoatl at La Venta" Monument 19, La Venta, Tabasco, merged into one

Necronom IX
Micronaut Astrostation playset,  echoes of Pazuzu, and Dali's "Daddy Longlegs of the Evening - Hope!'" with Otto Dix's "Skat Players- Card Playing War Invalids"

Nightmare (Henry Fuseli)
Giger incorporated Fuseli's nightmare painting into his work Biomechanic Landscape II 
(Also see: Biomechanic Landscape II )

Nommo
Deities of the Dogon culture assumed to have been extra-terrestrials from the Sirius star system 

Necronomicon
A book imagined by H P Lovecraft that contained descriptions of ancient extra-terrestrial demons that could be summoned with spells. H R Giger named a large book of paintings after

O

"Observatorium
A painting by Ernst Fuchs that appears to have inspired Giger's Stillbirth Machine

Carlos Victor Ochagavia
Illustrator for the original covers of the Illuminatus trilogy which inspired Giger's painting Illuminatus

Oni
Japanese folklore entities perceived as demons, devils, ogres, or trolls

William Onyeabor Synth-Funk pioneer from Nigeria, perhaps his surname sounds a bit like Hieronymus Bosch. Album covers appeared to have been referenced in "Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphics" and "Demon"


P

Pakal Votan Tomb lid
Mayan tomb lid popularised by Erich Von Daniken found its way into Giger's artwork in such images as ZDF , Necronom V and Erotomechanics VII


Pantheistic Bes
Winged sculpture of a beast man imagery that was incoporated into Giger's The Spell I

Pazuzu
An Assyrian demon, of which a statue stands in the Louvre, and made its way into the modern public consciousness through the movie The Exorcist. It's perceived that it may have been inspired by the Egyptian deity Bes. The Pazuzu statue as seen in the movie may well have found its way into the bifurcated cheek structure of the final big beast creature in the movie Alien. Perhaps some impressions of the demon are to be felt within Necronom IV. Perhaps the big beast in Alien can be loosely labeled as a Post-Modern Pazuzu

Picasso, Pablo
A painter that Giger admired and payed homage to in his work Guernica through his painting Anima
Mia (See: Pablo Picasso)

Pichlers, Walter
Designed the "TV helmet" that appears to have been part of the inspiration for an elongated head on Necronom IV

Pluto the dog
Disney character that entered Giger's painting Vlad Tepes (See: Vlad The Impaler)

Pollock, Jackson
Painter who inspired some works by Giger at the of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s.

R 
"Reveries of Opium", (Jean Cocteau)

"Robing of the Bride" (Max Ernst) 

Ruppert, Sibylle
German artist who was friends with Giger, her art both inspired Giger and was sometimes inspired by his.

S 
Sade, Marquis de

"Samson Finds the Carcas of a Lion" (Ernst Fuchs)

Scarab
Egyptian imagery that was incorporated into the Necronom II

Sea-Bishop
Mythical creature that inspired imagery behind Mordor VI. Giger had a dried skate or stingrway version of a sea-bishop or two on his wall at home
(See Mordor VI  (work 282) )

Sea-Monk
Mythical creature that inspired imagery behind Mordor VI
(See Mordor VI  (work 282) )


Sea-Lion
Sea animal that was absorbed into the imagery of Mordor IV and perhaps Mordor V
(See  Mordor IV and Mordor V)

Takeda Shingen
Japanese Warlord whose helmet became incorporated into Giger's The Spell III

Sirius
Supposed origin of the Nommo of Dogon Legend and a star system that Aleister Crowley was known to be in communication with.

Jade Sky
Translation of the name Pakal Votan

"Sleep"
 Salvador Dali's Sleep found its way into Giger's necronom VIII. (See: Necronom VIII )

"Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden"  
A partial inspiration for the imagery in Giger's painting Aleister Crowley. (See: Aleister Crowley)

Sokar Funerary Barque 
Egyptian ritual vessel that became incorporated into the Space Jockey design.


Steiner-Prag, Hugo
His illustrations for Gustave Meyrink's The Golem inspired Giger with imagery that became part of the paintings (see: Hugo Steiner-Prag ) 

Sting-Ray
In MordorIV, perhaps Giger would have liked to have assembled a mermaid composed of a manta-ray and a manitee , but since neither worked, he went for a sea lion body and a sting ray mouth and gills
(See Mordor IV)


T

Tah-Di-Isis 
The mummy of the ancient egyptian priestess resided in a museum in Chur and became a point of concern and inspiration for Giger when his elder sister took him there for visits. 
(see: Biomechanoid III : 1974 memories of an Egyptian mummy)
 
Tell, William 
Dali painted a number of paintings about William Tell, a figure of old Swiss legend and Giger incorporated elements of The Enigma of William Tell into his painting Mordor IV.

Tobler, Li
Giger's late girlfriend and partner, an actress who took her own life with a gun, appears in various artworks in one way or another.

Tolkien, J R R 
Giger created Lord of the Rings paintings named after  a book by Tolkien and named a series of paintings Mordor after a land mentioned in Lord of the Rings

"Triumph Of the Sphinx" (Ernst Fuchs)

"Treasures of Satan" (Jean Delville)

Tubular Bells (The Spell II)

Tull, Jethro (British Band)
Jethro Tull fuses in Giger's mind with Swiss folk hero, William Tell.

V

Virgin Records
The old virgin records label was referenced in Giger's The Spell II , being the record label for
Tubular Bells, the record for the music well known from Exorcist



Vlad Tepes / Vlad the Impaler
( See: Vlad The Impaler)

Pakal Votan 
Mayan king whose tomb lid decoration vaguely resembles a man piloting a rocket


W

Wadjet

Was-Sceptre

Watchers of Cirith Ungol, The  (Necronom II)
A vulture head shows up in Necronom II with its beak reflected behind it in black. The three faces looking in different direction may well related to Watchers of Cirith Ungol the statue with three vulture faces inhabited by watching spirits in the novel Lord of the Rings


Wilde, Oscar 
( See: Oscar Wilde)

Windowlicker 
Video by Chris Cunningham for Aphex Twin. Giger payed homage to the masks from the video in his The Aphex Twins drawings, probably completely oblivious to the fact that Chris Cunningham had sculpted the alien beast for ADI in the Alien 3 production

Z

Zeta Reticuli Incident
Betty and Barney Hill had the experience of being abducted by extra-terrestrials and taken aboard a flying saucer. Their story uncovered through hypnosis was the first alien abduction incident to reach the mainstream.

Zigzag Devil 
Australian petroglyph referenced in Delville's Treasures of Satan