BY FEATURED ARTIST: ANTHONY GRANT

BUSY SIGNAL

ANTHONY GRANT / MARCH 2021 / ISSUE 6

Busy Signal is part of an ongoing body of work which combines my interests in symbols both graphic and personal, representation of African Americans in media, textures, and recycling in both literal and figurative terms.

Music to accompany

In his day-to-day work life, Anthony Grant creates commercial design work for the masses. He spends his days crafting user interfaces as well as other digital and/or printed media relying on acquired knowledge of the graphic arts. He balances those “rules” of design with his own intuition and style. While his professional work strives for perfection and/or “solutions,” his personal artwork aims to be disruptive, while drawing on the familiar, using certain visual cues and symbols often found in advertising to question identity and cultural norms/expectations. Anthony’s pieces are designed to seep into the viewers psyche; to wake dormant, inquisitive parts of the mind. As most advertising is tailored to condition the viewer (look better, be smarter, more likable, etc.) to align, purchase, and/or profess their love a brand, Anthony combats that notion with graphically disjointed fragments and symbols that can be reassembled or reinterpreted by the viewer. The viewer is meant to question the meaning of the piece, and the meaning of the cultural icons and symbols Anthony has appropriated.