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Dashing Dash Snow
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 8, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 8, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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New York Magazine takes a closer look at elusive street artist, Dash Snow. Cell phone and email-less, the only way to get in touch with him is to yell from the street below his Bowery apartment. "Lorax-like, he won’t come to the window to let you see that he sees you: He has a periscope he puts up so he can check you out first." If that fails, you could get in touch with one of his best friends, Dan Colen and Ryan McGinley, who have helped perpetuate the myth behind the man.
McGinley took a photo of him called "Dash Bombing" which was part of a show at the Whitney. It shows "Snow out on a ledge, tagging a building in the night sky, Manhattan spread out below him. It’s an image of anarchic freedom, one that seems anachronistic and almost magical in this city of hermetically sealed glass-cocoon condo towers. It’s as if Snow were an animal—prevalent in the seventies, now thought to be extinct—that was spotted high over the city." A pretty good description of the 25 year old. But by far, the best part of this article describes a scene from a hotel room on Piccadilly when the two were in London for a show:
"They had to flee it in the middle of the night with their suitcases before it was discovered that they’d created one of their Hamster’s Nests, which they’ve done quite a few times before. To make a Hamster’s Nest, Snow and Colen shred up 30 to 50 phone books, yank around all the blankets and drapes, turn on the taps, take off their clothes, and do drugs—mushrooms, coke, ecstasy—until they feel like hamsters."
We're speechless (just like hamsters). But like it or not (and we kinda like it), Snow is an integral part of Downtown New York, as much as he is a part of the art scene. Check out this piece he wrote for his downtowny friends at Paper magazine in 2005. It's accompanied by photos he took with, "a camera that I made of wood, palm leaves and cocaine. It takes film, which I make myself as well, and it works wonders."
Not exactly something you'd expect from a kid who's family includes a brother named Maxwell who dated an Olsen twin and a mother who has charged the highest rent ever for a Hamptons home ($750,000 a season). But of this part of his family, he says he is cut off, or more accurately, “Cut off. Scumbags.” But according to McGinley, his art world grandmother "is the best...She’s always taking care of us...Getting us drunk.” And when Snow says he doesn't really talk to his dad, McGinley chimes in, “You do talk to your dad! We’ve all hung out with your dad!” So the confusion behind Snow continues, it seems, and we also kinda like that. More on the whole scene at New York Magazine's current "Warhol's Children" issue. We shredded ours to make a Hamster Nest, see you in four days.
Above photo via NYMag
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Downtown New York
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ryan mcginley
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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