We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sid Faze a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Back in April of this year, I assisted a few friends with their exhibition, UNITY, in Echo Park. Amin is a self-taught, Palestinian fashion designer, and Lev Diamond is a multidisciplinary Jewish artist. The show was born from a personal request when Lev specifically reached out to Amin to design a bespoke garment for him, around October 2023. This led to the creation of a hand-crafted denim set adorned with olive leaf embroidery, pearl buttons, and motifs inspired by the Palestinian Keffiyeh, all representing peace, harmony and solidarity. The denim set became the centerpiece of the exhibit.
To me, the most moving work in the show was an enlarged photo triptych of Amin’s fabric shears, photographed by Lev. These shears, passed down from Amin’s Holocaust-survivor neighbor, Leo, represented resistance against oppression and division. Leo had used these shears to craft clothing to evade the Holocaust. A portion of gallery sales went to Doctors Without Borders, with additional donations directed through the Make Art Not War Foundation.
Watching Amin and Lev work together was a powerful reminder of how art can foster compassion and conversation. I’m so tired of seeing overpriced, meaningless, childlike scribbles sold to the usual buyers for investment purposes. For me, the most authentic art comes from a place of deep and moving meaning, and UNITY was a profound example of that. As artists, we have a responsibility to bring light to this dark world and restore some faith through our work. We have to remind people that, at the end of the day, we’re all made of the same bones on the inside.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a native Angeleno, born in Santa Monica and raised on the West Side. Growing up around Santa Monica and Venice, skate culture had the biggest influence on me, through art, fashion, and even my semi-anarchistic view of the world. I always knew my path would involve art and fashion together in some way. I went to a creative high school, then attended Santa Monica College for a semester before transferring to USC’s Roski School of Art and Design as a Spring admit. I finally got my degree in fashion from Academy of Art University, and my day job is in apparel production. I’ve also dabbled in styling and have DJ’d house music for 11 years.
As an artist, I’ve done a lot of mixed-media work, often in the form of paper collages layered with graffiti. My portfolio is diverse, from pencil and charcoal drawings to acrylic paintings and digital designs using Illustrator, Photoshop, and CLO3D. But these days, I focus less on making art myself, and more on the curation and promotion of others’ works. I’m putting these skills to the test with my first-ever art show on December 15th, organized through my collective, Fairfax is Dead.
Fairfax is Dead is a creative collective and nostalgia-driven project aimed at confronting LA’s growing challenges while inspiring positive change. The name itself is both a literal and a metaphorical statement—the street is deteriorating, rents are inflated, retail is dying, luxury has lost its relevance, etc. It’s not just one problem, but a mix of complex factors like unchecked capitalism, the impact of social media and technology, and the pandemic. Once the heart of streetwear culture and local community, Fairfax is now a ghost town made up of boarded-up stores and “For Lease” signs.
“Fairfax is Dead, Market:24” will take place at Exhibit A Gallery on Fairfax on December 15th from 6-10pm. The show will feature 19 LA-based artists—from painters and photographers to fashion designers. It’s a show for LA, by LA, with the goal of reigniting the artistic energy and community spirit that Fairfax, and this city as a whole, were once known for.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Just before my 20th birthday, about halfway through my BFA at USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts, I started getting these horrible daily headaches that eventually turned into one constant migraine. It was just the beginning of a whole range of issues—chronic pain, anxiety, extreme fatigue, stomach problems, and a weakened immune system. I had to drop out of school and I was mostly bedridden for about five and a half years. During this time, I stopped driving altogether, and I didn’t attend any sort of social event, let alone a major event like a concert. It was difficult enough to take a shower or walk around the block.
I saw the best doctors in the country, and I was finally diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) at Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2016. My specialists essentially told me I’d have this disease for the rest of my life. There is no known cure, and treatments were purely off-label back then. I just about gave up, but I knew I was destined for more.
I had to become my own doctor—researching complex medical publications and systems, trying unconventional treatments, and eventually switching to a more plant-based diet. Slowly but surely, I started to notice some slight improvements. I decided to channel whatever energy I had left into studying fashion, transferring to Academy of Art University’s online program. I graduated magna cum laude in December 2019 with a BFA in Fashion Product Development, and became the first person in my family to obtain a college degree.
I’ll never get those years back, and I struggle with that every day. But I’m probably the most resilient person you’ll ever meet. Those years forever altered my perceptive on life and the world (both good and bad), while teaching me patience—something I never had before. It really taught me what matters most in life.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I only have 1,668 followers on the Fairfax is Dead TikTok account, but I organically gained over 1,000 followers and 270,000 views in the last 2 months. The TikTok algorithm can be unpredictable—a video I posted recently got 80k views, while the next one got a mere 300 views. Hashtags aren’t as important as people think, there’s no magic formula for the best time to post, and if you don’t grab your audience’s attention in the first 2 seconds, don’t bother posting. The key is to keep posting consistently without getting bogged down by perfectionist editing—sometimes the raw, unpolished stuff works better.
Art, fashion, and social media all revolve around engagement. What I love about Fairfax is Dead is how it sparks so much conversation with every viral video. It feels like a massive sociology experiment—hundreds of people either agreeing or strongly disagreeing, and all sharing their views and experiences as they relate to LA’s ever-changing landscape. It’s refreshing to see people interact with each other, instead of just “liking” something, then forgetting about it. Whether you’re building a fashion brand, promoting yourself as an artist, or planning an event, you have to create community; get people excited to participate.
Thanks to TikTok, my idea for an art show went from a small, intimate gathering with a few artist friends to a viral movement. Some prominent artists have reached out after seeing my videos, and a few will be joining the show. Social media is here to stay, and as much as I fight that a lot, we have to find positive ways to leverage tech’s power and create networks that will launch us forward, both personally and professionally. This is just the beginning for me and for Fairfax is Dead.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sidfaze.com, www.fairfaxisdead.org
- Instagram: @sidfaze, @fairfaxisdeadorg
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sidfaze
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairfaxisdead
Image Credits
Camille Waterfallen, Rocky Riccardi, Madison Gallegos