I hate Dash Snow. I actually barely knew the guy — a few daps and handshakes here and there — but it’s hard to call Dash an asshole or a victim, because what he was, was… a sad statistic of the lore of downtown NYC. I hate that Dash lived up to his promise, the promise to burn bright and fast. Leave a nice looking corpse. Even he knew it would be too easy to lump him into the decades of junkie/genius/soft criminals that have come before him. Even now he seems like well studied, all too deliberate rebel, complete with the upper crust upbringing, the obligatory drug-fueled downtown NY lifestyle, and the sadly short but storied career breaking through the glass cieling of the institution, right down to his untimely death at 27. Yet, his life was too brief and concentrated to offer us any perspective on just how lasting his art would be. However, something tells me his prolific output will stand the test of time, and that his short career won’t be minimized or cheapened by the cliche of his demise.
“Dash was good at life. He was lively. But he was one of those artists whose work was a process of self-testing, a documentation of his life.
Page two of “In the Event of My Disappearance:” A bag of heroin on a black background. Page three, a Hitler-head postage stamp. Page nine, words cut from a newspaper: “STOP SUFFERING.” Page ten, a Polaroid of an empty, ruined swimming pool. Page fifteen, Michael Jackson in a bandana, with two of his children, in Spider-Man masks. Lots of beds, tattoos, beer, parties, clips from magazines, strange things found in streets and fields, and finally a newspaper clip: “Bandit downs self to end chase.” And a Polaroid of a railroad track in the middle of nowhere, curving into the trees.”
Glenn O’Brien, who has had years more experience with NY and it’s demons, says it best over here. I think Dash lived hard, left an exquisite corpse, but unfortunately will never have had the time or wisdom of perspective that a long life can bring to an artist, as painful as that life could be. Regardless he will be missed, and the city maintains its track record.
