SOUSE: Tears of the Bikini Girls // 2007

SOUSE: Tears of the Bikini Girls // 2007

Paintaholics* // Product Art Festival // Varna – Bulgaria
Thomas Marcus Schuman & Nevan Lahart


Temple of Tears



Tears of the Bikini Girls


The Paintaholics meet up the day before leaving for Bulgaria, for Souse their exhibition in Varna. They had no ideas and they were leaving in the morning. Time was running out. They drank good quality whiskey and fished their brains. They fell on the idea of making a holy icon made from the tears of bikini girls. The tears would be gathered and used to mix the watercolour paint. As an incentive, a special secret would be told to the girls for crying, it involved shampoo and a cure for stinky feet.

Thanks to all The Bikini Girls for shedding their tears, Blanca, Maria, Silvi and Yuki


Minimalist Bulgarian Sculpture


Minimalist Bulgarian Sculpture // Cardboard, Receipt of Purchase // 180 x 100 x 25 cm // 2007Minimalist Bulgarian Sculpture // Cardboard, Receipt of Purchase // 180 x 100 x 25 cm // 2007

Discarded cardboard is very difficult to come by in Bulgaria. Its recycled by an army of bicycle riding recyclers for a living. As a comparatively wealthy westerner you sometimes marvel at the bargains to be had in East Europe. Not so with cardboard. It is incredibly expensive. We bought 14 sheets of cardboard in an art shop for €10.

 

 

 

 


Nothing with No Donkey


Nothing with No Donkey // Accidental Conceptualism // Diminishing Dimensions // 2007

Nothing with No Donkey // Accidental Conceptualism // Diminishing Dimensions // 2007At the start we were asked for a list of equipment needs. We had decided earlier that we wanted to do something with a donkey. We put in our equipment list and found that a lot of what we thought of as reasonable request was difficult to source, but there was no problem with the supply of a rented donkey. Our problem arose with regard to what the something with a donkey would be. We had spent most of our funds on the Temple and were finding junk waste extremely difficult to find. This was due to local recycling. It was conducted by a vast array of lone individuals on bicycles who operated on an industrial cottage scale. We ran out of time and had to call the performance of something with a donkey off and turn it into nothing with no donkey.

 


Paintaholics Security Device


Paintaholics Security Device // Glass of Whiskey, Cardboard Box, 5lt. of Water // Dimensions Variable // 2007The Paintaholics Security Device, which was made to secure our room during a bout of justifiably extreme mafia paranoia. We were a bit over enthusiastic and lippy to some heavies in the early hours of a late night out in Varna and ended up in a hairy position. A friendly heavy, a small weightlifter who you wouldn’t fuck with, arrived the next day as a deterrent against further trouble.

 

 

 

 

 


Paintaholics @ Work


The Paintaholics are 2 painters who like painting, drinking and smoking, in no particular order but often altogether. They also like laughing. They come from Hamburg and Dublin. Their hobbies include gardening, Ti-Chi and acting out the lives of fictional characters Thomas Marcus Schuman and Nevan Lahart.