I took up the practice of swordfighting in 2011, as a way of taming my violent streak and because I also wanted to make some video art about swordfighting.

I was lucky enough to find the School of Classical Swordsmanship. I train weekly on a variety of weapons. I also film and photograph as much of our process as I can. Some of the filming is staged and some is just raw fight footage.

Swordfighting as a martial art is the most amazing thing I've ever done. It's incredibly satisfying to fight with weapons and ground violence in discipline in a way that I cannot quite express. I am intrigued by why we do this, why we have all sought this out and come together to study it. Is it the element of fantasy and history? A satisfaction of base urges to fight? In using my cameras to document our work, I have been searching for something that explains the resonance that draws all of us to this practice and to make it something beautiful for the rest of the world to see.

 

Our country is currently facing a difficult conversation where weapons are concerned. The line between reality and fantasy is often blurred by fantastical film and failed political agendas. When I began studying swordfighting, the first thing I had to learn was how to take a hit. It was painful and left big bruises. Those hits chipped away at the romantic fantasy about what I was doing. With every hit, I became more connected to the reality of my life and the life of my opponent and more removed from the abstracted fantasy and catharsis of violence.

 

Swordfighting is simultaneously an offensive and defensive situation. When practiced as a martial art, it is a meditation on life, as you can think of nothing but protecting your own when a weapon comes at your face. It is a dance and a conversation, one where the language is refreshingly direct and uncomplicated: you make your point or you die.

My work on this project, as both an artist and a skilled, disciplined warrior, is far from complete. Documenting the craft of making weapons, successful fighting techniques, fight choreography and the visual representation of what means to fight with a weapon are still being developed and worked with. There is very little high-quality media representation for this martial art and there are many conceptual angles and questions that remain unexplored as well.

Progress on this project will be documented on my production company's blog, hellknightvideo.blogspot.com and more swordfighting videos can be viewed on the Hellknight Video youtube channel.