DAVID SABASTIAN: A TALE OF AN UNAMERICAN MURAL
A little over a month and a half ago, Rapper, Designer, and all around Multi-Hyphenate at the helm of Anti Society, David Sabastian, accomplished an amazing feat of artistic prowess in painting the entire storefront of the abandoned American Apparel on Melrose Avenue. Being a mere few blocks away from the famous Fairfax Fashion district, the Mural stood out as a beautiful disaster of sorts among the neatly manicured upscale boutiques of West Hollywood.
In less than two days David managed to paint the entire store front, only for it to be covered up before even having the chance to overlook the famous strip for more than 72 hours. In fact, this interview is derivative of the phone call I had with David to break the news to him that his mural was being covered up. To my surprise, when I started to fix my lips to tell him the bad news, he already knew and wasn't angry at all. So, without spoiling the surprise, this interview aims to tell the story of 'How' & 'Why" David Sabastian painted the American Apparel on Melrose, while simultaneously celebrating the work of art. In essence, this is the tale of the "UNAMERICAN MURAL."
What was the true reason or your motive behind painting the American Apparel store?
David Sabastian: Honestly, just what can I say to the world. Like really, that's what it is. Like what am I saying to the world, the people driving down the street, like what are they going to think? What is this going to inspire, what thought is this going to inspire. And the reason why I don't really play with a blue print or anything like that is because I just try to channel — I try to let me just be a conduit to the universe and I want everything that I'm doing to kind of just be in the moment and be spontaneous and everything that kind of comes out of my hands is just shit that pops into my mind — The Shep, the programming, the Shepard being the TV telling people what to think, the god like character lady holding men by their balls just representing like, new age feminism and the future being female — You know it's hard to explain but it's all just coming to me in that moment.
You wasted no time getting to the point with this piece. The mural included a KKK member playing basketball, Ronald McDonald serving up poison and numerous other references to popular culture and society as a whole. Why did you feel the need to paint these images in Melrose Avenue?
David Sabastian: Well see the thing is, that American Apparel store actually used to be a spot I used to intern at — It used to be JT Martin Designs, the airbrush guy who airbrushed all the Aaliyah shirts back when she died, and Missy Elliot wore them or whatever — And I would ditch school and go to that building and he would teach me about airbrushing and stuff like that. But — I know a lot of the youth that go to Fairfax still and they were like, "Yo when you did it, everybody in every class was talking about it, motherfuckers were leaving class to go see it, blah, blah, blah," it like, really meant something to the kids at Fairfax.
David Sabastian: So in a way like, my whole message is to show like, I don't even want to use the youth, like, but just to show people; kids, children, adults, teenagers that they can do it, too. That the boundaries, that the rules, that the borders — All the things we create for ourselves, they don't even exist, you know what I mean? Who's to say you can't just go paint a building, right now? Yeah your shit may get painted over, but you can still do it, because I did it. Who's to say that you can't take 20 kids to The Broad or to The Hammer and teach them about shit that can inspire them? Like, do it! Everyone has all these things that they want to do on their vision board, you know? I want to do this, or I want to do this, and they wait for this perfect moment, or they wait for the perfect finances and they wait for the perfect, whatever, to try to accomplish those goals — When in reality, they can do it right now. So, everything I do, the spontaneity of it comes from just wanting to show people that this doesn't have to be some long, thought out thing, it just happened, you know what I mean? It was a thought and it just happened.
You expressed to me that this wasn't so much as an exhibition as it was a means to connect with people. Can you elaborate a bit on what kind of connection it is you were trying to make with people through this mural? Why was it so important to communicate through this mural?
David Sabastian: My paintbrush — The canvas, be it a wall, be it a canvas, a literal canvas, be it the world –— Is really just an extension of my perspective, an extension of consciousness. A lot of things that I do right now, won't be understood, right now. There's certain people that have been on this planet that do things — And it's not that people don't appreciate them, it's just people can't understand, right now. But, a lot of things that I do right now will make a whole more sense later on — So, as of right now, all I'm doing is being a vessel and doing what I feel I should be doing. Now when I say, 'I feel like I should be doing,' — What is 'I'? What is self? It's not me — It's this burning desire inside of me that's telling me to do these things. So, all I can do is follow them — Because I feel like if I don't follow them, then I am not following my higher self, my higher purpose. So everything I do is to get people to listen to that voice inside of them, because we all have it, yet no one's higher self is telling them to go to a school they hate, or go to a job that they hate, or date people that they hate, you know what I mean?
David Sabastian: Like, everyone has that voice inside of them telling them to do something great — My job is to just follow mine and inspire people to follow theirs. Because once we have a generation of people who are listening to that voice, and conquering their fears and conquering their ideas, and manifesting the things they have inside themselves, we'll have a much better, happier oasis of life, a place to live in — Because everyone will be following their dreams and know that their power is infinite. Every system, be it school, be it parenting — Everything from when you grow u is to teach you that you need something else, or you're not good enough at this — No one is really there telling you as a youth that you're a God, that you're a super hero. Because the second that you know that you're a super hero, then it's game over. Then you can unlock the codes to the game and you win. But if you don't, than you need them, you need their products, you need to buy their shit, you need to stay stuck in a system, the matrix. So my goal, lastly, is to give people that blue pill. Me painting on walls and buildings and designing this, and going here, or when I'm in Paris or wherever the fuck I'm at and I'm showing people like, "Yo, you can do it too," that's really just the blue pill that I'm serving just to be like, yo this is you, I am you — Come be this. The limitless pill, that's why I do this.
As an artist, what would you say is the most important principle to keep in mind when creating and why?
David Sabastian: Freedom. Because, when you confine yourself into a color palette, or into a method, or into an ideology of what art should be, then you are confined to the parallels of that. But when you are free, and when you really don't think about anything and you have no concept of what you're doing and you just do, then I feel like the possibilities are endless.
