Daniel Swanigan Snow

For the third iteration of Prelude, Swivel is thrilled to present the presentation of Daniel Swanigan Snow’s Walking Sticks (2023), a series of eight sculptures the artist also coins The Eight Pillars of Power.

Daniel Swanigan Snow’s sculptural practice is composed of found objects retaining their original form, combined with other unexpected objects, resulting in a completely new form and function. Twenty years ago, Snow began building what he calls “three dimensional collages”. Growing organically from either a specific found object, or a socio-political concern that he feels has to be addressed visually. Snow’s methods have their roots in the Italian “Arte Povera” movement of the 1960s, so-called “poor art” unaffected by commercial concerns and using unconventional, humble materials.

Snow’s Walking Sticks are made up of found objects, stones from the beaches of the Hamptons, sticks from various states and materials from the artist’s lived experiences. They echo spiritual objects, in their ornateness and material choice. The artist’s deliberate choice to incorporate organic materials, bone and other faunal remains (feathers, shells, turkey feet etc.) in tandem with metal and glass, provides these objects with an almost otherworldly connotation and harnesses the power of having something that was once alive, of something that once was. Realm of Second Thoughts, is composed of a cow jaw, a dreamcatcher hooked to the wooden stick by what resembles a claw, and a taxidermied frog, while Kongo, incorporates bells, adding the element of sound to the visual work.

The title, Walking Sticks, provides these seven sculptures with a whimsical, light air, reinforcing the artist’s mentality around a so-called “poor art” while in counterpart, the “scepter”, used throughout various cultures for millennia as a status symbol, has been associated with power and wealth but also spirituality. Scepters are mentioned in ancient cultures from Mesopotamia to Ancient Egypt and Greece. The use of walking sticks historically evolved from a functional purpose to a status symbol over time. Humans used these elongated rods, made of wood, metal, and ivory at times and could be intricately ornate with beading, gold, bone, shells and various other materials associated with wealth in their respective culture. Snow’s creations hold within them something contemporary but ancient, a blending of our time while crossing over into the past, into boundary-less territory. They contain a mystic quality where life is seemingly breathed into them through history they’ve bore witness to, the miles they’ve traveled, and the will into existence set into motion by the intention of the artist

Prelude, an innovative series of capsule projects hosted at our flagship location at 396 Johnson Avenue. This initiative is designed to provide a first encounter with the practice of an artist on the gallery’s horizon. The core of this concept revolves around an intimate presentation to introduce a deeper dive in a future exhibition: in our viewing room, a chosen artist takes the stage alongside our duo of full-scale exhibitions. Serving as a point of introduction, this compact yet impactful display allows viewers to create first impressions of the gallery’s new talents, establishing the thematic essence of our upcoming collaboration.