Andrew Blake: “Average Pornography Is Anti-Erotic”

Long ago, in the age of rickety vaudeville acts, tawdry peep shows, and dimestore nickelodeons, people scoffed at the notion of film as an art form. A hundred years later, movies are screened in "art houses," and in university we scored a B+ in a class called "Film as Art." So it’s no biggie that filmmaker Andrew Blake thinks himself an artist. Except that some of his artwork involves naked, writhing women impaled on a double-sided dildo. So what, you're not a prude, are you? We spoke to Blake about his work, his art, and his perpetually naked assistant.

You see yourself as an erotic artist, but surely there must be people out there who are just using your work to get off.

I think that’s wonderful, it means I’m doing my job. I am fully behind the element of getting off, but you can approach it in different ways.

So how does your pornography differ from average pornography?

I fully believe average pornography is anti-erotic. It’s not sensual, not beautiful, and it’s shot on video. I’ve only shot on film my entire career. I’m not making sausages. I make three movies a year, where the rest of them are churned out. My work hearkens back to the experimental film in New York during the sixties. I think I’m one of the last vestiges of that kind of underground filmmaking.

Are you a filmmaker or a pornographer, and do you see a difference between the two?

I can’t exclude myself from being a pornographer, but I’m not entrenched in that world. I don’t go to industry parties. I’m almost 60 years old, so I can’t stay up past 10:30. But I enjoy the girls in this business. They’re like the new Bohemians.

How so?

Because they’re free and everything goes. On set I always have a nude assistant , a model who works for me.

Why is she naked?

Because I want her to be.

Have you ever been romantically involved with any of your models?

I’ve been very tempted. It’s very hard to be in a candy store and not want to taste some of the candy, but I’ve been married for like thirty years.

What does your wife think of all this?

She runs my business.

Is there a lot of exploitation in the porn industry, where directors and producers take advantage of the girls?

It depends on the girl. In this business, every other girl is doing private sessions, the escort thing, which levels out the playing field. They are getting paid to be there.

What kind of criteria do you look for in an actress?

It’s whatever happens to turn me on. I tend to like tall, brunette, long legs, and natural breasts.

So are you not even trying to cater to an audience?

No, I do this for myself. It’s whatever turns me on.

Why do you hardly use men in your films?

I’m not into shooting boy/girl scenes anymore because I want to be the dominant male presence in the room. The last one I shot was last summer, and I didn’t like it. I kept the guy very anonymous.

Is the filming process very sexual?

It is. A good pornographer starts with a hard-on.

The future of the porn business mirrors that of the mainstream film industry and the music industry, in that it’s suffering because so much of it is available online. What’s your response to that?

It’s a big problem. We all have to figure out a way to teach the consumer that this is very expensive to produce. But the music business tried to do it, and look what happened to them. I’m trying to position myself now into more of an art entity.

Do you ever face opposition to what you do?

Most of the people who oppose what I do are what I call “Raincoaters.”

Which is what?

It’s the guy that’s naked under his raincoat and goes into a grungy porn theater and jerks off. Those really down and dirty 8th Avenue type places. I’m not preaching to the blue-collar workers. I make movies for thinking people. I don’t do plotted movies. I do free association, cinema abstract.

Andrew Blake will appear at the Swiss Institute on Wednesday, June 11, at 7:30 pm for a discussion with artist Lawrence Weiner.