Ochi Projects is pleased to present DRAWN INWARD, New Orleans based artist Heather Hansen’sfirst solo project in Los Angeles. DRAWN INWARD will open on Tuesday, September 29th, 12-5pm. Heather will spend Wednesday, September 30th performing and interacting with visitors atOCHI PROJECTS from 12-5 pm, followed by a performance Friday, October 2nd at 7 pm.A dancer and visual artist, Hansen has always been interested in the physicality and performativeaspects of making art. She spent the past several years experimenting with ways to alignmovement with mark making–blurring the lines between performance, drawing and dance.If Hansen made her works exclusively in the studio, behind closed doors, we would simply callthem large-scale drawings. They would be no less impressive, as they are enticing in scale andformally engaging. Instead Hansen works in front of an audience, or a camera, bringing an earnestcandor to the results and making them as much about the act of creating as the creation itself. Thepublic aspect to Hansen’s practice seems uniquely honest and it ultimately imbues the finaldrawings with an immediacy that is ineffable and compelling.Hansen’s works also possess a bodily sense that is definitively female. Formally, the shapesresulting from Hansen’s movements are round, soft and seem to relate to a corporal interior space.Highly seductive, the performances define this femininity and Hansen’s awareness of it. As adancer Hansen knows how movement brings focus to the body, and that her movements, capturedin charcoal or pastel, feel larger than life, becoming a persuasive substantiation of her body and itspotential.Beyond their femininity, knowing Hansen consciously moved with the intent to create not only afluid mark, but also a graceful movement, gives her drawings an endearing sense of humanity. Theimperfections in the lines and shapes are evidence of the human hand and they capture thespontaneity, exuberance and force of movement and its inherent energy in a way that is deeplypowerful and poetic.