Li Tobler

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Li Tobler (1948 – 1975), was a Swiss stage actress. She is best known as model to several of H. R. Giger's works (including his famous Li paintings), as well as for being his life-partner up until her death by suicide in 1975.

Li Tobler with Voice of America figures (1968)

1 Biography
2 Li as a symbol in Giger's work
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Not much is known of Li Tobler's early life. She was born in Switzerland in 1948. In 1966, she met surrealist artist H. R. Giger while she was studying acting in K. Rellstab's drama studio. According to Giger, she had "an enormous vitality and a great appetite for life" and wished her life to be "short and intense"^[1]. Tobler was living in a very small and unclean apartment with her then boyfriend, actor Paul Weibel, a friend of Giger. Giger, having only graduated from the School of Arts and working as a designer, made the proposal to move in with them, which they promptly accepted. Tobler, Giger and Weibel, in terrible economic condition, shared the apartment in the following months, despite its numerous inconveniences. After Weibel left abroad for professional reasons, the friendship between Tobler and Giger gradually developed into a romance. In 1967, the couple left the building and moved to the attic of a condemned building nearby. After the building was torn down in 1968, they moved to another condemned house^[2].

Meanwhile, following her graduation from K. Rellstab's drama school, Tobler started working in the Neumarkt. In 1969, she was chosen by the Stadtheater theatre of St. Gallen, a city almost 50 kilometres of distance from Zürich. Tobler and Giger were capable of meeting only during weekends during this period. Tobler remained a member of the Stadtheater stage for two seasons and in 1970 she returned to Zürich. Due to her ongoing financial problems, she was obliged to move in to a friend of hers, though Giger was also living in a flat nearby. However, a few months later, on April, a small inheritance left to Giger by an uncle of his allowed the couple to buy a house in the suburbs (specifically, in Oesterlich) and settle together again. Tobler went on to act for the Kellertheater theatre in the Canton of Baden.

The relationship of the couple was reportedly tumultuous, and involved promiscuity from both partners, as well as frequent use of drugs. On one occasion, Tobler failed to appear at the house and Giger, on the brink of terror, started frantically looking for her in highways. Eventually, he received a phonecall by Tobler, three days later, who informed him that she had to make a trip of extreme urgency (probably with another boyfriend of hers, as remarked by Giger years later). According to the painter, "as of that moment she did, more or less, what she wanted" ^[3]. Giger, who was always madly in love with her, was unable to help Tobler in her personal agonies and lack of control in her life, given his own psychological problems and agony over his artwork. Giger later stated that he was cheered simply by the fact that Li had found another lover, as that would make her happy and also improve Giger and Li's life together. It has been acknowledged, however, that Giger also used to see other women, much as Li Tobler had parallel affairs during those years.

In 1971, Giger and Tobler visited director Fredi M. Murer in London. Murer filmed a TV documentary, entitled Passagen (1972), about Giger's work. The documentary also featured interviews by both Giger and Tobler. In the 1972-1973 season Li gained a part in the play My woman, my leader, and had to travel all around Switzerland. Physically and mentally exhausted after 130 performances of the play, weary after the hectic schedule that required extensive tour around the country and confused by her promiscuous erotic life, Tobler decided to take a leave of absence from the acting profession, as well as from her relationship with Giger. In 1974, she opted for leaving him and moving to San Francisco with her new American boyfriend. However, 30 days later, she returned to Zürich, claiming to be disappointed over the United States (as well as incapable of adapting to American lifestyle, according to Giger) and resuming her relationship with the painter.

Following this incident, Tobler started becoming heavily depressed. In sharp contrast to Giger, who was undergoing one his most energetic artistic periods, Tobler was gradually dissolving in depression and apathy. Giger's energy only seemed to depress her more ^[4]. She started contemplating suicide. One of her friends, Jörg Stummer, advised her to open her own gallery, as a means of becoming active again. Her gallery presented several modern artists, including works by Manon, Walter Pfeiffer and Jürgen Klauke. At her last exhibition, entitled Schuhweke (German for Shoe Works), the guests were invited to appear wearing bizarre shoe creations. Giger filmed the guests while wearing a pair of "shoes" hollowed out of fresh loaves of bread. Despite Tobler's initial enthusiasm with her new project, after a short period of creative stir, she fell into a lethargic state and ended her life with a bullet at the age of 27, on Whit Monday 1975.

Giger was accused by some people as negatively influencing Tobler (who was regularly dealing with depression) with the bleakness and morbidity of his work ^[5]. Nevertheless, Giger was devastated by Li's death and felt an emptiness in his life, which was reflected by the even darker tone his work assumed from that point onwards. On 1976, the event known as "The Second Celebration of the Four" was held, with Giger and his friends attending, in Ueli Steinle's Ugly Club in Richterswil. The happening functioned simultaneously as as the inauguration of the club and a memorial for Li. The happening included the worshipping of the Four Elements and was claimed as being close to Satanist and Lovecraftian aesthetics ^[6].

[edit] Li as a symbol in Giger's work

Li I (1974). Li Tobler was so enraged with her representation in this portrait (nowadays, one of Giger's most famous paintings) that she attempted to tear it

Several articles have been written on Li's function as a symbol and reflection in most of Giger's early professional works. Nevill Drury, who interviewed Giger in 1985 (Shadowzone # 5), observes the following ^[7]:

"Li is the prototype for the many ethereal women in his paintings who peer forth from the torment of snakes, needles and stifling bone prisons - to a world beyond. Giger painted Li's body several times with an airbrush and there are several photographs of her posing naked - like a woman of mystery struggling to emerge from the nightmare that has possessed her soul". Drury concludes her article by remarking: "It may be too simplistic to say that Li haunts Giger still, for his life is full of beautiful and exotic women who are fascinated by his art and by his bohemian lifestyle. But there is no doubting that the simultaneous agony and joy of life with Li Tobler established the dynamic of fear and transcendence which is present in many of his paintings".

Many of the female faces that can be seen in Giger's early work are based on Li's face^[8]. Arguably the most famous paintings depicting Li (and the only ones doing so explicitly) are the eponymous Li I and Li II (both 1974), two of Giger's most well-known and recognizable works. Allegedly, Li was shocked when she first saw the painting (Li I) that was supposed to represent her and proceeded to break the frame and tear its fabric ^[9] Thankfully, Giger was able to reconstruct the torn painting by use of pins.