Alexis Sablone

“I see skating as an imaginative misuse of space.”

When Alexis Sablone finds a moment to chat, she’s not coming from the skate park but from her art studio, where she’s got a sculpture made from tree branches underway. The seven-time X Games medalist, who started skating competitively when she was just 12, also has an undergraduate and master’s degree in architecture and practices out of New York. It’s a career hybrid that’s led to some imaginative results, including her design of a skate park, more aptly described as a “skateable sculpture” in Malmö, Sweden. She called the experience a “dream project”—but in everyday life, she finds ways of staying creative, whether through her art, which also includes animation, or the invention of new tricks on her board. All being well, she’ll soon encounter the biggest adventure in her 20-year career: representing the US in skateboarding’s debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. (When we speak, the tournament’s postponement to 2021 has not yet been announced.)

How are you feeling about the Olympics? It’ll be your first time and the first time for skateboarding. 
A mix of nervous and excited. I have no idea what to expect. I still have some qualifiers ahead of me. I can’t think about the actual thing yet.

You’ve said you view skating as an art form because of the inventiveness it takes to find places to skate. Do you think of yourself as an artist who’s doing something physical, or an athlete with creative leanings?
When I started skateboarding in the ’90s, no skateboarders referred to themselves as athletes. [Being an athlete] was kind of like an insult because we felt we were different. At this point, with the Olympics, there are so many different sides to skateboarding. [The Olympics] is the competition side. When I’m doing that, it feels very much like a sport, like I’m an athlete looking at a scoreboard. But when I’m skating street and trying to film something, that feels really different.

What’s the connective tissue for you between architecture and skateboarding?
I feel a lot of overlap between architecture and skating in creative uses of space. With architecture, you’re trying to imagine space that isn’t there. In skateboarding, you’re taking what’s around you and trying to reimagine different ways to use that space. Skateboarders have a certain eye. You’re constantly looking at the materiality and shape and how everything around you is organized because you’re looking at it to try to choreograph something through it. 

“Skateboarders have a certain eye. You’re constantly looking at how everything is organized because you’re looking to choreograph something through it.”

Are you at all inspired by dancers?
At Barnard [where Sablone completed her undergraduate degree], I had a lot of friends that were dancers. I was describing skateboarding as choreography through space, and I think that’s exactly what it is. There’s a certain rhythm and pace when you have an idea for a trick, and you’re imagining it, and I think that’s choreography.

One perception of skateboarders is that they’re a public nuisance. But as you said, part of the art of skating is seeing spaces in a unique way. How do you think about repurposed versus dedicated space for skaters?
I think they’re both important. When I started skateboarding, there wasn’t a skate park in my town. I had to drive about an hour to get to one. Even in the years I’ve lived in New York, there are so many more skate parks everywhere. They’re fun, and I think they’re a great place for people to meet up. But that doesn’t mean that they replace spots that are part of the city. Because found or reclaimed space—there’s something about that. I see it as a playful and imaginative misuse of space rather than vandalism or anything negative. Always having something to search for is really important, and a fundamental part of skateboarding. If something’s built for you, it’s fun to practice on but it’s not the same thing. The spots where you choose to skate say a lot about you.

Did you ever feel like architecture was the “respectable” or safe thing to do?
Not for me. I loved school. I wanted to study, and be in that environment. [But] when I got out of school the last thing I wanted was a conventional job, and skateboarding gave me a way to make money and buy time so I could work on my own projects, have my own schedule and travel around the world. Now that skateboarding’s going to be in the Olympics, it’s never felt so credible.

Do you still encounter people who don’t take it seriously?
AS: It’s a really pleasant surprise to people because they’re not expecting to hear [that I’m a skateboarder]. They just think it’s cool and wonder what that entails. But also as I’ve gotten older there is sometimes the response of, “Oh, you’re still doing that?” which is what it is. I always think that has something to do with being a female.

You designed a skate park in Malmö, Sweden. What was that experience like?
There’s a really vibrant skate scene there. [A friend I met there] works in the city council of Malmö and is also a skateboarder, so he asked me if I was interested in designing a skateable sculpture. In some ways, it was a dream project for me because it was not a skate park but basically a large-scale public art sculpture that’s open to different user groups. It’s open to skateboarders, and other people in the city can interact with it. It can be shared by different people. I think there should be more spaces like that.

Do you have any insight into how architecture, skating or art can be activated for social movements, or change?
It used to be rare that you saw another girl skater. I didn’t skate with other girls until I was an adult. You go to a skate park now and it’s still 99% guys. For some people, that can be intimidating. [But] in the last few years that’s changed dramatically, and there are a lot more women skateboarding now. I skate for Converse and have been involved in both of their Pride campaigns since I started. On a smaller scale, I try to be encouraging. Being a queer female professional skateboarder, I try to use my voice however I can to make sure everybody knows that skateboarding is for everybody.