Exhibition View

UCCA Lab is currently hosting "H.R. Giger ? Sorayama: Approaching," the first-ever duo show by H.R. (Hans Ruedi) Giger and Hajime Sorayama staged in China. The sci-fi artist Sorayama and the “Father of Alien”H.R. Giger, who rose to fame with the work “Sexy Robot” that combines machinery, metal and human lust, came from opposite ends of the earth, but each showed their infinite imagination of future technology. The art book containing the works of the two has been republished for the third time and it ushers in the two-person blockbuster exhibition “H.R. Giger x Sorayama: Approaching” debuted in China.

Exhibition View

The exhibition explores the boundaries between man and machine, reality and fantasy, and is divided into three parts – “Exploring Surrealism, Fear and Fantasy”, “Before Tomorrow, Between Creatures and Machines”, “Pop Culture’s “Seed”—shows 45 works of each of the two from the 1960s to the present, using the concept of duality to present the perspectives of the two artists. While analyzing the similarities and differences between the two, it further introduces their forward-looking, as well as their views on science fiction movies, their inspiration from popular music, culture, fashion, video game industries.

H.R. Giger is pegged as one of the most influential and inspiring artists of our time — the artistic language and philosophy that he’s developed since the 1960s have contributed to making him the leading cultural figure in the science fiction section. Back in the 80s, the Swiss artist had even designed the alien-themed ‘The Giger Bar’ in Tokyo. “The Giger Bar in Tokyo was actually created against my will,” Giger himself wrote in 1997. “While I was in Tokyo, I was asked to make a wish, on stage, during a press conference. Spontaneously, I wished for a bar, which was then brought into being even more spontaneously!”

Exhibition View

One of the similarities between Giger and Sorayama is that they organically merge biological and mechanical life forms, pulling emotion and soul into artificially intelligent robots. In addition, the two present a whole new outlook on forward-looking science fictional settings and theoretical yet lifelike biological shapes and forms.

The exhibition's layout was inspired by an underground colony, where visitors can choose between left and right, brightness and darkness and consider how life, nature and technology will work together in the future as we approach it faster than ever before.

About the Exhibition

Dates: 2022.12.25 - 2023.3.24

Venue: UCCA Lab

Courtesy UCCA Lab.