The sword has a classical association with traditional masculinity, a weapon to be welded in battle, to be thrust into something, an object of power. We’re taking it here and playing with it, queering it. Play fighting, power exchange, fucking with the sanctity of the idea of a serious and sacred masculinity. In Japanese a common way to refer to someone who is bisexual is ryōtōdzukai “user of two swords“.
In the Tarot deck, the suit of swords is ruled by air, ever-changing, ever moving, nebulous, perfect for this blurry, hot and sweaty flip fuck.
An ancient symbol of the divine masculine, the sword = cock symbolism isn’t exactly subtle here. Recreated with some of the director’s favourite sexually charged tarot imagery from the suit of swords under glowing neon red light. An occult homoerotic Bacchanalia ritual or a sweaty 3am club fuck.
“Bishop and Matt have been friends forever and I’ve known them about as long too, we all had our misspent youth in the same sweaty goth clubs of London and it was a dream to reunite and capture some of that ‘in a club corridor grinding into a stranger’ energy. Their intensity was infectious, I couldn’t believe it when I found out that they hadn’t actually fucked before this!
We shot this dark and dirty red light scene at 9am (!!!) in a local bar of ours being interrupted – in an incredibly cliche porn moment – by someone coming in to fix the dishwasher. Bishop and Matt are angels, laughing and joking around the whole time, taking turns picking each other up and throwing each other around, I wanted this shoot to have some joyful, manic energy and they delivered it so effortlessly.
–Vex Ashley (performer, director, editor and producer at the Four Chambers project).
FOUR CHAMBERS PROJECT
From a background in analog photography, art school bullshit and digital sex online, Four Chambers is a project, an idea and an ongoing collaboration with the intention to explore the aesthetic and conceptual potential of pornography as a creative medium for ideas.
Headed by performer, Vex Ashley and self taught in film making with an emphasis on collaborative DIY practices; Four Chambers now exists alongside a new wave of creators making contemporary pornographic work from a new perspective.
The project remains deliberately ambiguous, rejecting labels for both their films and performers, existing in-between genres of both art and pornography and dismissing the need for a definition of either.
Exploring themes of technology, symbolism, mythology and alchemy and their intrinsic intersection with sex and part of the growing decentralisation from traditional adult industry business, Four Chambers is independent, DIY, conceptual, pornography cinema.
