Alien Explorations

HR Giger's Mordor VII references James Gleeson's The Sower?

leading from
James Gleeson
 and
Gleeson's The Sower and Giger's Mordor VII stand side by side.

a) Comparisons to James Gleeson's "The Sower.  Did Giger take ideas from this painting to  biomechanised  Steiner Prag's "At the Master's Grave" to create Mordor VII?

On April 5th 2016, Christian De Boeck posts a picture of Australian artist James Gleeson's The Sower at Fantastic Art on Facebook

It is a painting from 1947 that appears to show some similarities to the sort of painting style of Salvador Dali and perhaps is one of the best examples.  

However one problem with this painting being an influence is that this artist was hardly known about, but his painting did appear at an exhibition at a main gallery in New South Wales back in 1967 and ideally should have attracted attention over time amongst the Dali fans.  

The year that Giger painting Mordor VII, he would come face to face with Salvador Dali at his home in Cadaques so perhaps he would have known some of the best informed of Dali's fans at the time and took interest in the most interesting examples of paintings done in a similar way to Dali's

James Gleeson's The Sower (1947)
Giger's Mordor VII

b) Here I am seeing a similarity to Giger's Mordor VII. 

A giant has a skull superimposed over one of his eyes and this transforms into the dark skull imbedded in the head in Giger's painting. 

A root vegetable like plant with a blue tail held in the hand becomes the testicular sack at the right bottom corner. The mouth of the top left leonine creature with a blue main becomes incorporated into a phantom suggestion of a creature in the top right of the painting.  

An instrument with a curved edge leading to perhaps a spike at the bottom of the curve, hanging from the green material connected to the small skull superimposed over the giants eye, becomes an arm in the lower left middle of Giger's painting  that has a shoulder, but no seen hands, however it has an eye in its armpit and the wrist may well fuse with the hand at the bottom centre of Giger's painting. 

In the upper centre of Gleeson's painting another animal head with protruding eyebrows and large upper front fants has a knot in the hair from the top of the head

The upper part of its muzzle becomes transformed into the mouth of the head of Giger's humanoid, with a front fang twisted horizontally protruding forwards. 

The eye on the lower side of the animal's face has been carried over into Giger's painting. A sinewy hand in the centre of The Sower becomes transformed into piano hammers and wires.

Gleeson's The Sower and Giger's Mordor VII stand side by side.



small dark skull in the head of Gigr's humanoid and eye superimposed over giant's eye socket in Gleeson's painting

creature heads. The upper part of the snout would have been used and transformed by Giger



Giger's vestigial impression of leonine creature's head from Gleeson's painting as shown in lower image


Pumped veins on the arm in Gleeson's work and Giger's integration of the pattern into his own work


root vegatable like thing from Gleeson's painting and sausage like thing sticking out of sack in Giger's painting




Gleeson's curve shape, Giger limbs and Gleeson's leg


Gleeson sinewy hand, Giger piano wires and hammers

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