Pop Culture // Current TV

Divers make the best expressions

A gallery of photos from the FINA Swimming World Championships in Rome from the Diving... more

emmaboswood
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Messy life, clichéed death for prince of hipsters

Demise of Dash Snow, notorious in New York's downtown art scene, marks the end of an era.

Dash Snow died this past Monday of a heroin overdose, and obituaries all over the world have established him, already, as "iconic," a kind of cipher for the Downtown New York art scene of the past 10 years. They usually begin by identifying him as an artist but nobody really wants to talk about his art. He was a fascinating muse for other artists, but his lifestyle is the most interesting thing about him, involving as it did a devotion to every kind of hedonism possible when a person has no respect for taboos and pots and pots of money. The style of his death also represents the end of a particular moment in the life of American art, the logical conclusion of its utter submission to the glut of money fuelled by fraudulent financial instruments pumping through the world's major cities before the crash. He was an icon of a nasty and empty art so cynical it amounted nearly to nihilism.

Snow was also, in a very direct way, one of the most influential forces on popular culture. Gavin McInnes, the founder of the hipster bible Vice magazine, literally used to follow Snow around recording the smallest detail of his life. The fact is you've seen Dash Snow. You can see him on Ossington tonight if you want. He's the trucker-hat-donning, skinny-jeans-wearing, Pabst-Blue-Ribbon-drinking, Converse-shoe-stepping trustafarian hipster of the past decade who thinks that the good life is staying up until eight in the morning snorting blow in the toilet stalls at after-hours clubs. Snow was the source that Vice magazine used to develop that template.

The comparison with Basquiat, another New York artist who died from consuming massive quantities of drugs, has already begun and it is not flattering to Snow. I caught the Basquiat retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2005, and it was a revelation of his searing originality and consistent growth right up to the point of his death. Basquiat's life was about the work. Even his drug use was about the work. He would snort coke all night to paint and then shoot up in the morning to fall asleep. He poured his demiurge energies into self-education and the mastery of technique, steeping himself in the traditions of Symbolism and Expressionism, which he then melded with street art.

Snow's work is the stuff teenage kids do at parties. His most famous pieces are a photograph of himself snorting coke off a semi-erect penis, and a collection of newspaper pages covered with his sperm. Basquiat's hedonism fuelled his creativity, but for Snow hedonism was the creativity. Ariel Levy's profile of Snow in New York magazine in 2007, which made him famous beyond his immediate circle of friends, began with a description of a game he played semi-regularly with the sculptor Dan Colen called "The Hamster's Nest." "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." This is what Snow was good at. His art grew out of running around at night, doing graffiti and stealing. He was proud of being a thief; he believed it gave him authenticity. He paid bums to let him tag their backs. He thought it was cool.

Even the hedonism seems joyless and cynical, fuelled by only the shallowest spirit of rebellion. Because, of course, Dash Snow was rich. He was a de Menil, a member of a family regularly featured on Forbes' list of the richest families in America and one of the greatest art collecting dynasties in history. How else could he have maintained his lifestyle if he were not a scion of one of America's great fortunes? How could he have called himself an artist if he were not a descendant of some of the greatest patrons the world has ever known? His brother has dated Mary-Kate Olsen. His grandmother commissioned the Rothko chapel in Houston. His family sponsoreDemise of Dash Snow, notorious in New York's downtown art scene, marks the end of... more

Apocalipstick
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Lady Gaga wearing a ‘Kermit The Frog’ outfit!

Far too many kermit the frogs were killed in the making of that coat , when is she... more

celebrityg
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2 years ago
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6 comments

Crazy Frog (not that one) attacks Pink

This story has everything: a world famous singer, over ambitious amphibians, roadside... more

emmaboswood
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2 years ago
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Not everyone loves David Beckham

David Beckham is back in LA, but not everyone is happy about it. His botched... more

emmaboswood
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2 years ago
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3 comments

Your Guide to the Weird, Wild Web

For the uninitiated, the Web seems like some sort of a strange inside joke. Chuck... more

kid_amy
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2 years ago
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Why we should all get over Gamer Girls

What I really don't get about the gender issues surrounding women in gaming is... more

emmaboswood
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2 years ago
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What's the baby sitter up to?

She's the source of fear, frustration and sexual fantasy. A new social history... more

atomiclegion
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2 years ago
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9 comments

Girls on Film: Men Writing Women

"There's no way around it. Unless a screenwriter is writing about one-minute... more

St_Alia_10191
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2 years ago
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9 comments

Giant Cupcake in London

What's billed as being the world's largest cupcake is in London's... more

AnnieMole
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2 years ago
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7 comments

Hotel 626...

Check out this website... a little bit from the press release: You're trapped... more

kirstie
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2 years ago
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Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

At midnight, the folks at Quirk — who brought you the best-selling Jane Austen... more

kid_amy
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2 years ago
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3 comments

64 Gadgets Dragged Back to 1979

For this week's Photoshop Contest, I asked you to redesign some modern gadgets as... more

kid_amy
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2 years ago
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2 comments

101 Muppets of Sesame Street

Just roll on the muppet face to learn more about them! --Snuffy!

kid_amy
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2 years ago
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1 comment

Star Wars/fine art photoshopping contest redux

Title taken from boingboing.net Today on the Worth 1000 photoshopping contest:... more

kid_amy
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2 years ago
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8 comments

Lego Calculator

It does exactly what it says on the label. It's a calculator made out of Lego.... more

mattbrawn
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2 years ago
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12 comments

50 reasons to date a geek

Geeks make excellent boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses. Although many of these are... more

sunnyspeaks
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3 years ago
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