Stief Desmet
Subtitle: "paradise, prototypes & other deconstructions"
By: photography, Tom Callemin ; text, Patrick Ronse, Christophe Vekeman
Contributors: Callemin, Tom; Ronse, Patrick; Vekeman, Christophe, 1972-; Be-Part (Organization)
Series: APE -- #126
Publisher: Art Paper Editions
Published: 2019
Place of publication: [Ghent]
Language: eng; dut
Number of pages: 48
ISBN-13: 9789493146044
Subjects: Exhibitions
Other titles: Paradise, prototypes & other deconstructions; Paradise, prototypes and other deconstructions
Description: In 'The Member of the Wedding', a 1946 novel by the American author Carson McCullers, the twelve-year-old protagonist Frankie Addams sighs: 'They were the two prettiest people I ever saw. Yet it was like I couldn't see all of them I wanted to see. My brains couldn't gather together quick enough and take it all in. And then they were gone. You see what I mean?' That Stief DeSmet 'understands' what Frankie means like no other, how could it be otherwise? What he invariably presents in his work, and again in 'Paradise, Prototypes & Other Deconstructions', is the fragmentary representation of something that is too agile and too fleeting in its totality 'far too agile and fleeting' to be fully grasped. Paradoxically enough, that 'something' cannot be equated to what we often call the 'unreal' beauty of supremely attractive people, or to colourful skies filled with billowing clouds, or even with artistic masterpieces. Nor is it related, in a non-aesthetic sense, to the type of incident that is often characterised as 'too good to be true'. Exhibition: Be-Part, Waregem, Belgium (24.02.-02.06.2019).
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition held at Be-Part, Platform for Contemporary Art, Waregem, Belgium, February 24-June 2, 2019.

Chiefly illustrated.

Title from cover.

Parallel texts in English and Dutch.