After working initially in photography, Mike Bourscheid (b. 1984, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg) went on to develop a body of work that includes sculpture, some of which are used as costumes or props for performance. An artist with a wide range of manual skills – from leatherworking to fine sewing – Bourscheid produces these pieces himself, employing artisanal techniques to question the structures of capitalism, patriarchy and heteronormativity. Both ironic and absurd, his most recent works emphasise his intent to ‘focus on the tenderness, softness, feelings and emotions in the work. ‘(…) I am interested in the soft and emotional things. I am proud how soft and tender masculinity can be. Masculinity is very fluid and I am just tired of how gender is always split and reduced to male and female.’

Lucien E. P. (†) (2020) is a soft sculpture created from stuffed fabric. The work resembles a sagging, legless torso, leaning backwards on a wood support that recalls a prosthetic hook. Clad in a hand-dyed, silk gauze shirt and fastened with an ornamental chain, the front is decorated with a large number of artificial flies of the kind used for fishing. Its somewhat limp, pathetic form suggests a sense of injury, mutilation and vulnerability. As with much of Bourscheid’s work, the piece can be connected to a biographical narrative, being titled after his deceased stepfather. The artist has described it as ‘a homage to his tenderness and to him as a father figure: ‘‘He taught me to fish, so the lures are an emotional talisman for my relationship with him.’’