HR Giger – Birth Machine Poster

One of Giger’s most famous paintings is the Birth Machine in 1967. Some say living on 17 Storchengasse Street, meaning Stork Street, inspired him to do this work. “My paintings express all kinds of themes and often my feelings. Most of the time there is no ‘message’ attached to them. For example, The ‘Birth Machine’ is a slice through of a Walther P38 pistol. You see the barrel, and instead of bullets there are little men with large glasses. They sit there with a weapon in their hands. This weapon is a weapon with a magazine, and in that magazine are more pistols with magazines. This means that you can go deeper and deeper. “With this, I wanted to illustrate the enormous population explosion which is happening. All unpleasant things come from the fact that there are too many people on this planet.” Said H.R. Giger. Even as he says this there can be a lot of different interpretations to this piece. Some believe that this is about over population and that it is also about the psychological effect of traumatic birth. Others believe the piece was about not birthing humans but birthing soldiers. Giger is ok with this. He wants people to find and make their own ideas of his work. Maybe there is something there that is subconscious to him but noticeable by others.
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