Birth Machine
In 1968, Giger used ink on Transcop paper and wood to create his Birth Machine. The work brought the curtain down on one of the early phases of Giger’s career and marked the culmination of the crude side full of dark humour in that period. It shows a cross section of a semi-automatic firearm (Giger was a big collector of pistols and had more than 60 of them) pointing up. Like mass-produced items, little human beings that are all exactly the same are lined up in the magazine and the chamber. The artist felt that they would be blasted into a brutal, tainted world, so they are already equipped with guns and diver-like helmets for protection.
Giger said that he had to be pulled out with forceps during a very difficult birth and he even claimed to remember it happening. Perhaps that is partly why one of the bad dreams that haunted him during his night terrors was of an enormous room with just a small opening at the end. In his nightmare, the artist would start to panic and try to escape through the little tunnel. However, it would keep getting narrower and he would get trapped at the exit by a sort of clip. Fear would then really take hold of Giger, when he realized he couldn’t go back into the room because his arms were tied up.