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New York, 9:16 AM
Sun Nov 29
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/14/09
07/14/09
Waitaminute.
Wow, that raises interesting questions regarding the heightened relevance society places on historical architectural preservation; and in 35 minutes of 'tagging', the artist challenges society to consider whether any public structure can truly be considered worthy of the sanction of reverence and . . .
um . . .
. . . I lost my stream of post-grad bullshit
I just hope that ugly stain (not even pretty graffiti!) on the last stone suspension bridge the world will likely ever build was easy to remove.
Sorry, RIP and all that, but still.
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Hamilton, in all seriousness, I want to ask you about the editorial purpose of this statement. What kind of criticism are you trying to preempt? To me this veers into the territory of "doth protests too much," which sort of ruins, for me at least, any possibility that jerking off on newspapers is any less of a mediocre artistic gesture when it's done with self-awareness. You're undermining yourself if you mean to honor him.
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That said, of course I'm sad he's dead, but not because I won't have to endure a handful of old haggard acolytes orgasming over his version of "youth culture" anytime he 'innovates' another cumrag.
*It must be said, however, I'm *super* impressed by the restraint used in not spelling it with a u.
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07/14/09
Yes and of course someone, somewhere will argue that Nan Goldin's work documenting social deviancy was better when Larry Clark beat her to it and did it first.
But seriously, the whole criticism of "I liked it better when___did it first!" is so tiresome. I think it has more to do with the person delivering the criticism letting everyone know that his/her grasp of art runs deep, even deeper than that of the artist
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Knowing and talking about the genealogy of a certain piece, and how it relates to its influences isn't showing off, it's criticism. But turning every piece of criticism around to become an ad hominem attack on the character of the critic is a really good way to shut down dialogue, if that's what you're after. I guess you really showed me.
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@Dr. Nick: They basically already did that at Deitch a few years ago. They recreated the gerbil party in a gallery. It was okay, but it's much more interesting to me as weird folklore than as art. Btw, here's a second try at that McGinley image.
07/14/09
But that's a beautiful photo, I remembered it, and it illustrates that what Snow was trying to do- although not to my taste- was a bit of youth and daring. NOT addressing me, addressing his age group. Things we forget when we grow up. We all want to be daring aesthetes and artists when young, a Romantic ideal. Youth re-invents this angsty cycle, as if it had never been thought before.
Snow had the means and access and family connections to become what he wanted. Now that he's dead, I wonder why he wanted it. To flirt with death via drugs, as the young rich historically have- I can't say I respect the life choices. Or wanting to be a legend in a tacky rock n roll way.
Dash Snow seems to have placed a premium on being seen as maximum cool, maximum street cred, going further with drugs than anyone else, this hipster ideal of oblivion. The dude used to do coke with his father- what the fuck with that. I'm sorry he's gone, what a waste.
Just not keen on this idea of glamorous destruction, which seemed an endemic "upper-class" habit in artistic circles in my yoof. Nothing glam about being a slave to drugs, or an early death. Damned sad, but there it is.
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What always bothered me about Snow was that although his art was about as conceptually shallow or studiedly "edgy" as much of what you'd find at undergrad art programs anywhere in the U.S., his New York connections as a scion of privilege allowed him to parlay his pretty ordinary and uninteresting art into downtown pseudo-celebrity.
And in the [i]New York[/i] profile from a way back and other things I've read, there were hints that he was self-aware to the point that he understood this.
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