Composited from thousands of digital files drawn from aerial views taken from internet satellite images, this work reflects upon the complex structures that make up the centres of global capitalism, transforming the aerial landscapes of sites associated with industries such as oil, precious metals, consumer culture information and excess. Thousands of seemingly insignificant coded pieces of information are sewn together like knots in a rug to reveal a grander spectacle. Questions of photographic and economic realities are further complicated through the formal use of patterns that have their origins in the ancient civilizations of Persia. This work draws upon the patterns and motifs used by Persian rug makers, especially the way Afghani weavers use the rug to record their experiences more literally with vivid images of the war torn land that surrounds them. This collision between the old and the new, fact and fiction, surveillance and invisibility, is part of a strategy to reflect on the global order of things.

David Thomas Smith is a visual artist who specialises in post-photographic processes. His work has been exhibited in several diverse locations around the world from the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris to the Hyundai Motor Studio in Beijing. Smith was nominated for one of photography’s most prestigious awards, The Prix Pictet, in 2017.