WHY WE MUST PLAY
by Syon Davis
But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don't believe in sensible rules
And won't believe what sensible people say
And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes
Keep building up impossible hopes
Impossible, things are happening every day
- Impossible, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Music By Richard Rodgers
As a child shaped by the 90’s version of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (lovingly known as The Black Cinderella), Whitney Houston & Brandy’s rendition of the song, “Impossible” still acts as a mantra that lives within my spirit to motivate me in my life and creativity.
As a Black, queer child, conjuring up my own universes is how I survived. Daily, I would get lost in daydreams, choreograph dances, and write stories where it was safe to expand, process big feels, and discover myself on my own terms.
Playfulness is inherent to our beingness. From birth, engaging curiously and playfully with our bodies and our environment is how we learn about ourselves and the world. At the root of play, is an open-hearted willfulness to stay present in the moment, lead with our senses, and activate our creative natures. Finding delight in pursuit of pleasure; accessing joy and satisfaction through the process of discovery.
As an adult, while I sometimes still do practice creativity for escapism reasons, most of my play practice is rooted in moving towards something, rather than moving away from something. Play and pleasure are central to how I live life, learn about myself, build relationships, experience and connect to the world, and of course, how I make art.
Why Play?
Embodied Pleasure as Revolution
“We have been raised to fear the yes in ourselves, our deepest cravings. For the demands of our released expectations lead us inevitably into actions which will help bring our lives into accordance with our needs, with our knowledge, with our desires. And the fear of our deepest cravings will always keep them suspect and will also keep us docile and loyal and obedient and lead us to settle for or to accept so many facets of our oppression.”
Uses of the Erotic - Audre Lorde
It is inherently radical to be frivolous with joy. To do something solely because it feels good and consciously seek out pleasure is counter-productive to the capitalist value of seeking profit by any means necessary. In the extractive profit-driven cultures that we exist within, money is made for a few at the expense of and to the detriment of the majority's bodies. Engaging with playfulness requires embodied presence. In most cases, listening to our bodies means moving at a much slower pace than what is demanded of us. Therefore, to consistently engage in our pleasure is to threaten everything that the billionaire class and the consequential systems that benefit them stand on.
In short, it is very important that the collective is playing right now. Our lives and futures depend on it. And by engaging with and centering pleasure, you give others the permission to do the same.
I can hear the skeptics, loud and clear:
“But you can’t have fun all the time!”
“That sounds hedonistic & gluttonous!”
“Seeking pleasure all the time is selfish!”
But what if engaging and listening to your desires consistently and authentically actually benefited those around you? What if your pleasure was deeply connected to the pleasure of those around you? What if you feeling good didn’t take away from anyone else feeling good?
On concerns of selfishness and fears of excess, I look to the wisdom of adriene maree brown who says:
“Pleasure activism is not about generating or indulging in excess. I want to say this early and often, to myself and to you. Sometimes when I bring up this work to people, I can see a bacchanalia unfold in their eyes, and it makes me feel tender. I think because most of us are so repressed, our fantasies go to extremes to counterbalance all that contained longing. Pleasure activism is about learning what it means to be satisfiable, to generate, from, within and from between us, an abundance from which we can all have enough.”
- adriene maree brown, Pleasure Activism
Syon is a queer, Black, fat, neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist. Their work is made up of artifacts from their decolonization and rewilding process– an active practice of shifting away from colonialist, anti-black, patriarchal, cis-heteronormative, and human-supremacist ways of being and moving towards pleasure, balance, acceptance,and being in right relationship with nature.
Much of their work focuses on reclaiming their identity as a natural being and being in relationship with their body and other creatures as such. They are currently exploring the aforementioned ideas through the mediums of movement, collage, film, animation, textiles, & the written word and at the intersections of those things.
They are one of the founders of Experiments in Freedom, an art collective creating space for people to access and explore creativity, self-nourishment, and connection with nature. Syon was born and raised on stolen land in Pomona, California and resides on stolen land in Portland, Oregon.
Learn more about their work at syondavis.com or follow them @sighbaby_ on instagram & tiktok.