Irish artist David Thomas Smith has a talent for turning banal piles of concrete and pavement into visually stunning works of art. Smith’s Anthropocene series adapts aerial photography of various “centres of global capitalism” — including factories, malls, office buildings, and airports — into patterned images modeled off of Persian and Afghan rugs. According to Smith’s gallery, his juxtaposition of “the old and the new, fact and fiction, surveillance and invisibility, is part of a strategy to reflect on the global order of things.” Art that’s gorgeous to look at and has a social message — definitely something we can get behind. Click through to see a gallery of images from Anthropocene, which we discovered via Artstormer, and visit Smith’s website to see more of his work.
Three Gorges Dam, China. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Las Vegas, Nevada. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Silicon Valley, California. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Burj Dubai, UAE. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Mall of America, Minnesota. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Fimiston Open Pit, Australia. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Beijing International Airport, China. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
Biosphere 2, Arizona. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith
1000 Chrysler Drive, Michigan. Image Credit: David Thomas Smith