Biography
Bourcart immigrated to the United States and has called New York, specifically Harlem her home since 2006. She grew up in Alsace (the Germanic region of Eastern France) and identifies as French with Vietnamese heritage.
Bourcart’s mixed media assemblages and photo collages employ a wide range of techniques, informed by her own multicultural background and the work of artisans explored through extensive travel. Bourcart’s practice although based in photography early on in her career, has expanded beyond the boundaries of the medium and includes the creation of the artist’s own alphabet and the formation of patterns, essentially creating a new language.
Bourcart is a self-taught artist trained in New York City at the International Center of Photography where she was also an assistant teacher. Her work has been exhibited internationally in numerous galleries and art venues including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, France, and Switzerland. Her photo-based works are part of the collections of museums in France and New York. Bourcart was invited to participate in several art fairs including Art on Paper, Art Wynwood, and Flux Art Fair, and she won a Honorable Mention Award at the National Juried Exhibition titled Black & White in 2020. She was also awarded numerous grants such as Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grants, Uniqlo Park Expressions grant, and The Puffin Foundation grant. Currently, Bourcart is an MFA candidate at the School of Visual Arts (2023 May).
Artist statement
The thread is my pen; resilience is my philosophy. Born in Colmar, France, I am a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York City. My work discusses social codes around material values and etiquette imposed in culture and subculture by the family environment, particularly influenced by my parents' voices.
My father’s family worked in the textile industry in Alsace, France, for generations constructing looms. His demeanor was mostly silent, humble, and refined. Coming from a different class, my mother was loud and followed strict codes of etiquette to fit into my father’s social class, behaviors, and manner of dress. Growing up, I was to inhabit this masquerade wrought by the tensions between my parent’s class backgrounds. I unravel social codes by rebelling against my father’s silence and my mother’s unrestrained talk by “communicating” with threads using unconventional materials that I knit, sew, and embroider. For instance, I thread vile materials like plastic bags from my local supermarket, hair from my cat, dirt from my hometown and literally and figuratively creating a private coded language in a visual way mimicking and inverting the social codes instilled by family values and social etiquette. Other times, I incorporate discarded materials such as old clothes from my family, lint left in my dryer, and sand from my travels .
In other words, I challenge the notions of “high” and “low” class, and “high” and “low” art, elevating the ordinary and often overlooked into the realm of art. My work returns dignity to the dismissed, the unwanted, and the seemingly mundane. Each body of work entails constructing and deconstructing rules, inviting states of freedom, joy, playfulness and humor. In essence, I weave together my collective heritage and my own single thread – the thread of my life. Therefore, the thread is my pen.