Sabo is one of the greatest artists working today and his latest piece is a giant Los Angeles billboard for Tarantino’s new film, which he defaced, pasted a new title and faces upon, renaming it “Once Upon A Time In Pedowood” starring Jeffrey Epstein. Sabo is a guerilla street artist and has Hollyweird right in the crosshairs.
XYZ spoke with Sabo about art and politics in America:
Q: Your current subject matter is Hollywood. What has it been like depicting Hollywood culture straight back at itself?
A: My giving back to Hollywood what it gives us is like a kid sticking his finger in a damn. I’m just one guy and Hollywood is that damn ocean that covers the whole of the earth with its narrative. I like that I can make the splash that I do. It’s all about timing and tenacity. I’m actually shocked this piece was covered as widely as it was. Usually the media covers for Hollywood and the shit they pull. It feels good.
Q: Formally, you are often working within the convention of advertising, either by modifying an existing billboard or creating your own new poster in an advertising style. What kinds of aesthetic opportunity does this give you? Does this give you a greater appreciation for commercial artists?
A: I’ve been and still am a commercial artist. I have all the appreciation in the world for the trade. My background is in advertising, not to mention also working in the startups as a front end designer. I know my share of code. I’ve built entire sites from scratch back in the day. This to me is not as difficult as standard advertising. Projects like this are like watching two birds smash into each other and BAM! an idea strikes me. My creative skills are dialed in to a degree that I can bang a project like this out in less than 24 hours.
Sabo’s latest work made international news.
They’ve completely weaponized the arts, cinema, music, television. All now a branch of the Left in general and that should scare everyone.
Q: You are often referred to as a street artist, but your work in action is closer to graffiti. How do you see the differences between the two?
A: I do see the difference between graffiti and street art. I personally don’t get graffiti. I appreciate it but outside of some people being able to bang out amazing lettering, not to mention the skill in being able to do it while dodging the police, I don’t see the point in spelling out my name. :/ Again, there are those who simply scrawl out their names and then there are those who do it in the most amazing, creative ways. Those graft guys I admire. Street art can me many different things. I consider myself a political guerrilla artist if anything.
Q: Street art is often associated with liberal hipster culture. How do you see the wider work of street art not just in terms of craft but depiction of subject matter? Do you find much acceptance in that world, do they appreciate your work?
A: Acceptance? … What acceptance I’ve received was earned through sheer tenacity. At first they laugh at me but after a while those who’ve come to know of me have realized that I’m the real deal. I mean what I say, it’s not an act and I’ll defend my position against anyone. And the whole 90% of the artists out there being hipster Leftists is by design. That is how the Left maintains control of the narrative. They’ve completely weaponized the arts, cinema, music, television. All now a branch of the Democrat party and the Left in general and that should scare everyone … but it doesn’t because they’ve been so completely indoctrinated to believe the Left are the good guys and those on the Right are the bad guys.
Q: Another billboard was modified, turning Bill Mayers TV show into an NPC. It was made by “The Faction”, a group of artists, are you part of the faction?
A: No I am not. The head of that group was an assistant of mine I found to be creepy. A client of mine, MILO, approached him to do a hit because he felt he could get him cheeper than going straight to me. And he figured my assistant is familiar with how I do things so he’d be competent. Even worse they ran off with an idea Id been marketing for over two years at that point. You’d think they’d at least have the good graces to use one of their ideas. They made at least a quarter of a million in the first week. How much the final tally was I do not know but in the end I no longer do business with MILO and that assistant was kicked to the curb. He started “The Faction” which is a very capable crew but not very smart in terms of concept. They have everything but brains.
Q: There’s another paste-up campaign recently stating “Its OK to be white”, which caused great controversy … How did you feel about that one and was it an offensive statement?
A: I can’t see why that would be offensive. I’m brown and I more than understand why that sentiment HAD to be made. In my 50 plus years I’ve seen whites kicked over and over and over again. And they were good enough to laugh and brush it off. It’s gotten to the point that it’s not funny anymore. Every culture runs around, blame whites for all the evils of the world. Western culture brought with it the civilized world. Yes its share of problems but at least the standard of living around the world has gotten much better in the past 200 years. Enough with kicking the white man. Enough with kicking any man. … … … I can say “man” right. I wont get in trouble for using a gender pronoun or whatever?
Q: How are you finding life in America right now? Being in Australia, we see everything through the prism of the media. We hear the economy is going well, but people talk about endemic problems. Trump polls well, but the media is aflame with reaction. What can you tell us about such a broad subject in a nutshell?
A: If the media could take down President Trump they would have by now. Let me explain something to you. This illustrated how weak the Left’s message is. There was something called “The Fairness Doctrine” the Left insisted on implementing on AM radio. AM radio is the bastard child of the media. FM radio is where the cool music is found. Anything cool on the radio was on FM. Political pundants and political talk shows were on AM, which meant the Left didn’t have COMPLETE control of the message. In order for the Left to keep everyone indoctrinated they must have complete control of the narrative. The problem was AM radio existed and they couldn’t have that. The one beacon of light in a sea of Leftwing darkness was enough to cut through their shit. The Left could not have that so they fought to push this fairness doctrine which would have forced those on AM radio to put a positive spin for every negative thing they said about the Left. If they couldn’t shut them down they would at least force Right leaning pundants to water down their message. AM radio, the bastard child of the media is too much for the Left to keep their shitty message together.
So how do I find it? I now see “HELP WANTED” signs in the front of business. I never saw those during the Obama administration. Obama was too busy handing out welfare checks and food stamps. Democrats would rather have the people dependent on them than have them earn their keep without the help of those politicians. That’s how you keep them as slaves. … Things here are good. DOn’t believe the media.
Q: A lot of activism and energy is put online, people interacting with one another virtually. What’s the difference between that and expressing yourself rather timelessly through paste-ups akin to traditional signage, albeit illegally?
A: The Left who run the interactive message from Silicon Valley can’t censor me on the streets. They can try to sensor the message online but as we saw with this hit if it’s juicy enough even they can’t keep my message trapped in a bottle or hide it from everyone.
Q: Are you already underway with more large scale work and can your reveal what it will be about?
A: I have a lot of awesome things lined up. I can’t tell you about most of them however I am working on a book and a documentary so look out for those. I hope to roll them out together. Sort of an interactive experience that ties in with my main site www.unsavoryagents.com.
A window into the creative mind of Sabo, including a visit by the secret service.