H. R. Giger was known primarily as an exponent of Fantastic Realism. In the 1960s he developed his hallmark repertoire of ‘biomechanoids’, technoid chimeras which were painted initially in oils and from 1972 in a virtuoso airbrush technique. After his sets for the 1978 film Alien won him an Oscar for special effects, he achieved worldwide fame. Giger designed the Harkonnen Chair for a film version of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune that was never realized, although the book was later made into a film by David Lynch without Giger’s involvement. The Harkonnens, to whom it owes its name, are the ruling dynasty in *Dune*. The high-backed swivel lounge chair made of polyester with mattblack foam cushions demonstrate Giger’s unmistakably technoid imagination. As a memento mori, it combines reproductions of human and animal organs and bones with tubes and cables. The four arms of the star base have terminals in the form of greyhound skulls. This handmade chair is made to order and also features in the Giger Bar, furnished by the artist himself, which opened in his native Chur, Switzerland, in 1992.
Text: Claude Lichtenstein
