Symin Adive (Bangladesh/US)

Bio

Symin (sigh-mean) Adive makes sad/fun art. She is a writer for The Onion as well as an Art Director/glorified Graphic Designer whose past clients have included The Empire State Building and Upright Citizens Brigade. Symin is brown, bi, and a third word that starts with “B.” The Bangladeshi artist resides in NYC and Norway. She has received grants from NYFA (City Artist Corps), Queens Council on the Arts and the Norwegian Parliament. Her work combines hurt and humor. It both overshares and sugarcoats. She uses her background in comedy and design to make the unpalatable palatable via multiple mediums (film, interactive, 2d, 3d). In her work, all the absurd and familiar ways in which we relate are of key importance especially if it’s hilariously sad and sadly, hilarious. Her recent projects focus on community (or lack thereof) and creating fun-ish, interactive and thought provoking make-shift “third places” antithetical to the clinical walls of the art gallery. Adive specializes in making playful environments for people to contemplate otherwise darker subject matter like CPTSD and lost childhoods.

Project

“Adult Fun (No, Not Like That).” Unfortunately, when the word “adult” is affixed in front of words like toy, games, fun, or play, it suddenly creates a connotation – sexual or sinister. Adult toys. Adult games. But surely that can’t be the only way for a grown person to experience happiness… Is a wholesome, uncomplicated joy only for the young? Symin is interested in exploring joy and humor. In personifying wholesome joy in adulthood. How did we go from wild unbridled unselfconscious joy of youth to muted reserves of adulthood? Is analyzing fun taking all the fun out of fun? Maybe, but if the fun’s already gone, maybe analyzing it can bring it back. It seems like as we grow up we live less in our bodies and more in our heads. This project explores how fun, wacky, zany, nonsensical, sober uninhibited child-like wholesome joy can be lost and how we can get it back in adulthood. The project will begin with a series of interviews. Of adults. Of kids. Kids will give instructions to adults – how to move, how to behave. Adults will act out what brought them joy way back when and what fun looks like to them now. Through workshops, adult toys (no, not like that) will be created from locally sourced materials. All the interactive elements and research will culminate in the creation of a game, of the school yard variety, that evokes Child-Like Fun…For Adults. And lastly, there will be a film to capture “Adult Fun (No, Not Like That).”