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H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis: Creating the Visual Concept for KooKoo

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Harry’s trademark blonde hair is turned black, denoting the dark aesthetic turn of their concept, and she is dressed in a half-human, half-machine bodysuit. If Har­ry had made an album clos­er to Danielle Dax, for exam­ple, then we might have seen one of the odd­est mid-career shifts in ‘80s music. Stein’s photographs expands on the previously released peeks into Giger’s lavish, fabulously creepy home, built like an old abandoned grotto, centered around Giger’s horror paintings and statues, complete with dark corridors, and those eerie squeaky doors and stairs of a recluse’s hovel in a vine-covered corner where the artist acknowledged being scared by his own Alien creature while walking at night in the dark.

KooKoo was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic and marked Harry’s first foray into the music industry without the rest of Blondie.

More recently, in October of 2019, Debbie became a best selling author with the release of her memoir, FACE IT. The band released its eponymous debut album in 1976, and released a further three albums between then and 1979, including Parallel Lines, which spawned six singles, including "Heart of Glass". Her spectacular voice drips with a sophisticated elegance rarely heard in pop music as she continues to infuse her work with an exquisite artistic sensibility. Contact us to book a viewing at our space in central London, to add any of our fine art prints to your collection or for advisory services. His star was a newly brunette Harry re-imagined as a cross between a Xenomorphic Giger monstrosity, the Bride of Frankenstein, and the legendary borg creation of Metropolis.

One of my fave music acts is Debbie Harry/Blondie and I really love Debbie's solo album Koo Koo which Giger also was involved with visually, so this book was a must for me with a load of rare and previously unseen photos and background story of Debbie's look while making this great album.

With all the grit, grime and glory recounted in intimate detail, FACE IT recreated the downtown scene of 1970s New York City, where Blondie played alongside The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. He has also collaborated with artists including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, William Burroughs and Devo. His photographs have been exhibited around the world, and collected in two books, "Negative: Me, Blondie", and the "Advent of Punk" and "Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene.

I wore a gorgeous black natural hair wig and a stencilled bodysuit to dance around in with my fair hair brushed in a Giger style stencil. Recently,” he added, “I’ve been trying acupuncture, hence the needles as well as the ‘punk’ with the word acupuncture.

Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for partner Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin. It seemed that interpretation came easier in Britain, the intended amalgam of black and white influences receiving a tepid response in Debbie’s homeland.

By 1964 he was producing his first artworks, mostly ink drawings and oil paintings, resulting in his first solo exhibition in 1966, followed by the publication and world-wide distribution of his first poster edition in 1969. In contrast, some of the most striking are the colourful, outdoor photos of Debbie nonchalantly hanging out in the neighbourhood while looking a bit like the robot woman in Metropolis. Blondie enjoyed tremendous success in the charts, which was unusual at the time for an outfit from a predominantly punk background. The fantastical videos for two of the tracks on the album, 'Backfired' and 'Now I Know you Know,' featured Giger himself piercing an Egyptian sarcophagus and a newly brunette Harry reimagined as a xenomorphic Giger creature. R. Giger, acclaimed for his designs for Ridley Scott’s movie Alien in 1979, had superimposed needles on a portrait of Debbie’s face taken by photographer Brian Aris.Blondie co-founder, guitarist, producer, photographer and co-host of cult cable show TV Party, Chris Stein began shooting in 1968 and hasn’t put the camera down since. Debbie Harry picked up on the personal interpretation theme when asked to describe the album, explaining, “the words simply mean what they say. As a vibrant global force and a shaper of pop culture, Debbie’s chart-topping success, fearless spirit and rare longevity led to an induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame for Blondie in 2006.

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