Mike Bourscheid | Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories

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Mike Bourscheid, "Agnes," 2022

video still. Courtesy of Thomas Richardson, Emil Olsen and the artist.

Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories features an installation of costumes, props, and sculptures handmade by Bourscheid, in conjunction with the world premiere of Agnes, what he describes as a “contemporary, auto-fictional video tale.” Inspired by the artist’s relationship with his single mother and experience of an absent father, Agnes addresses such themes as gender, toxic masculinity, parenthood, and loneliness, with Bourscheid’s signature sense of poignancy and play. The video is comprised of shots of the artist within the original installation/film set at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, where the exhibition was first shown in 2021. 

Some of the video’s and installation’s prominent props include seven latex noses of varying colours and shapes, in reference to the family story that the artist inherited his nose from his father. In Agnes, the artist plays a range of characters each identifiable by a different nose, exemplifying how identities emerge and change. Other props include handsewn blankets, a hand-built oak table, and a range of bespoke everyday objects such as a sleeping mask made with Bourscheid’s own wisdom teeth, a Ouija board, and more. 

“Mike Bourscheid critiques familial and interpersonal relationships, engaging in an important discourse about traditional roles in the home and beyond,” says Shaun Dacey, curator of the exhibition and director of Richmond Art Gallery. “Although the artist is based in Vancouver and Luxembourg, this will be his first major institutional solo show in Canada. We’re thrilled to invite local audiences to get to know the work of this internationally renowned artist.”