Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
Mike Bourscheid melds family anecdotes, fictional tales, domestic work, and tropes of masculinity—from clown to cowboy—in his new body of work Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories. Bringing together several sculptural works and a short film starring the artist, Sunny Side Up functions as a stage or set ready to be activated. Bourscheid’s signature sense of play and pathos percolates through this series of carefully hand-crafted and bespoke costumes, furniture, props, prosthetics, and puppets—many of which were originally featured in the film. Gallery-goers will discover his delightfully inventive sculptures fashioned from a surprising mix of found and everyday objects—hair extensions, a leather saddle, a suitcase, and even a Ouija board.
Mike Bourscheid’s sculpture and performance-based practice involves the fabrication of ungainly or ridiculous appendages and prosthetics, in order to channel alternate personae as a device for addressing aspects of masculinity, European pomposity, and patriarchal power. Bourscheid represented Luxembourg at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, and his recent exhibitions include Kunstverein Heidelberg (Germany), LIAR NYC (USA), and Kunstpalais Erlangen (Germany). Recent projects include a performance for Push Festival at Western Front (Idealverein, 2020, Vancouver) as well as a commissioned performance by the Vancouver Art Gallery for their Offsite location (Ledgers, 2019, Vancouver). Mike Bourscheid has an upcoming solo exhibition at 1646 (The Hague, Netherlands). He is based in Luxembourg and Vancouver.
The artist thanks the Canada Council for the Arts for funding the production of Agnes, and the Ministère de la Culture du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Fonds culturel national, Luxembourg (FOCUNA), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin for making the installation possible.
