Working in opposition to Google’s Deep Dream algorithm, which teaches computers to interpret images, David B. Smith programmatically de-constructs images, transforming them into soft objects that refuse to be deciphered by human or machine. His surreal and kaleidoscopic sculptures and paintings buzz with layered associative connotation, yet when one looks deeper only a ghost of the original meaning is present. Smith begins the lengthy process of each work by photographing and screen-capturing everyday moments and cultural memes, and then distorts, de-constructs, and re-configures them into digital patterns. These patterns are digitally woven into textiles which Smith then physically alters by cutting, stretching, mirroring, attaching, folding, layering, and stuffing. Intuitively referencing art, design, and craft practices, such as textile, mask, and object design, his process runs parallel to the path of memory, where a seed of data is accessed and a memory is constructed. Each memory is an act of creation – the telling of a new story based on an old one. In Smith’s case, the emphasis is on how the path can meander widely, resulting in a shifting meaning that generates beguiling results more akin to dreams than to memories.
David B. Smith holds an MFA from Bard College and has been awarded residencies by Apex Art, New Zealand; Harold Arts, Ohio; Waterpod, and the BOFFO residency, New York. Smith’s work has appeared in exhibitons at MoMA PS 1, The International Center of Photography, Yancey Richardson Gallery, Asia Song Socitey, John Connelly Presents and Halsey McKay Gallery. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.