Magnan Emrich Contemporary is pleased to present this is here, an exhibition of sculpture, drawings and video by Brazilian-born, New York-based artist Thessia Machado, opening May 10th and on view through June 16th, 2007. This will be Machado’s first solo exhibition in New York. The exhibition this is here includes two large sheetrock sculptures, a small, wall-mounted electrical wire piece, a series of sepia mylar drawings, and a single-channel video with sound.

maria angélica and 7th street are interpretations of Machado’s earliest and current homes. Based on the waveform graphs of these uttered addresses, disks of sheetrock are stacked to form columns, one hanging and one prone. The wall piece this is here, uses the waveform pattern of the spoken title as basis for its form; it is a truism in space. In the series circumvent, sepia mylar, a photosensitive material used in reproduction of architectural plans and land surveillance, is scratched to create a brief taxonomy of obstacles. The video leak pairs the image of constant yet irregular dripping water with breath sounds to ponder transmutation, the experience of time, death and the joys of apartment living.

Interested in the poetics of the physical, Machado has used humble materials (hair, water, wire, thread) to explore the concepts of language, memory, exile and intimate spaces. She has translated aural information into drawings and spatial data into sound to investigate the relationship of the body to a specific space (spaced, 2006). With digital animation, she has addressed the concepts of displacement (today I’m here, 2006), nostalgia (longday, 2004), vanity (flick, 2004) and adaptability (undesirables, 2004). In all her work, there is an attention to the personal and the quiet.