Heist Gallery is delighted to announce a new, immersive art film starring the activist and actress Rose McGowan. Challenging prescribed notions of gender constructs, the project captures a magnetic encounter between McGowan and a contemporary dance performance. Indecision IV originated as an invitation to McGowan by Heist Gallery and director Tonia Arapovic to respond to a performance by dancer James Mulford. Having never met Mulford prior to filming, McGowan is positioned in the middle of a chapel listening to ambient noises by sound designer David Triana.

Mulford approaches McGowan and she begins to react to his dance with completely improvised movements. Shot in one continuous take, the film was created in May 2018, during a watershed moment in McGowan’s life and is a physical expression of her state of mind at that time. Between its two protagonists and the medium of dance and painting, the film explores power struggles within gender constructs.

For the screenings, sound designer David Triana heightens the viewer’s experience of McGowan’s interpretation by reflecting the contemporary and rhythmic movement in the film through his manipulation of sound. Ambient noise is isolated in different parts of the performance space and channeled via noise-canceling headphones worn by the audience. Everything from Mulford’s ballet shoes - custom-made with sandpaper soles for this very purpose - to McGowan’s breathing becomes an instrument in the soundtrack for the piece.

Mulford performed the original dance piece in early 2018, taking inspiration from Maria Kreyn’s painting The Allegory of Indecision. The painting depicts the figure of Saint Sebastian, a highly eroticised icon of forbidden pleasure, beneath three fighting dogs. Creating a contemporary interpretation, Kreyn’s work draws inspiration from Old Master works as well as the Baroque and Romantic period. Mulford’s choreography, created by Chudi Okoye, draws from this heavy symbolism to create a performance representative of the contemporary struggles with gender roles and self-identity in today’s society.