Anthony Baab: Cover the Earth IV
byWithin his current body of work, Cover the Earth, Anthony Baab experiments with objects and materials associated with consumerism – packaging, advertisements, and logos. Baab views an explicit sense of command and function conveyed through these containers, perhaps more so than the commodities they hold or represent. Attempting to regenerate these objects into something otherwise and redirect their pre-fixed purposes towards aesthetic ends, Baab confronts the challenge of making these objects his own. The work is compelled by a sense of misbehavior, evoking the spirit and ethos of adolescence, inspired by doodling on a shoe, covering a room with posters, and building a fort.
As an itinerant, traveling project, Cover the Earth is an ever expanding and mutating form that undergoes a complete transformation from one location to the next. Between each location, the sculptures are broken down, repaired and re-purposed, much like a collage. Adding as many brands and objects as possible, the meaning and function of these products dissolve over and over again, allowing for new meanings and associations to form.