Australian singer Brendan Maclean’s “House of Air” music video for funbang1 (directed by Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston) looks at hanky codes and visual signifiers in 1970s San Francisco, exploring a clash between coded and explicit representations of gay male sexuality. Described as “an anthropological study of gay semiotics, taxonomies, and sexual behaviors,” a big reference is Hal Fischer’s 1977 Gay Semiotics: a photographic study of visual coding among homosexual men.

Rather than allude to sex, Fairbairn and Eccleston just go there. “House of Air” doesn’t shy from sex and fetish acts like BDSM, urination, and fisting… though some cheekiness remains through the visual aid of chocolate candy bars. Thus resulting in it being pulled from Facebook and from YouTube after 700,000 views. Never the less, the short film remains marked as “mature” on Vimeo available for embed, and has since received over 3 million views from Russia alone.

Brendan Maclean defends the video despite its censorship: “This was never a ‘marketable’ idea, but it was an original one that I cared about. Was it for everyone? Absolutely not. Has it been the most success I’ve had with anything ever? Absolutely.”

The creators rejoiced when the short film won “Most Trashy” at the 2017 Berlin Video Music Awards, however their success hasn’t stopped yet. “House of Air” was recently accepted to screen at the Raindance Film Festival, an independent British film festival who programmed the explicit short along with others in the music video genre.

Equality enthralling is the behind the scenes short on the making of “House of Air” by photographer Chris Parkes.

Support the creation of their art via Patreon. “House of Air” screens Saturday, September 23rd at the Raindance Film Festival, Vue Leicester Square West End UK.

Featured image credit: Chris Parke, houseofair.info