Paradise, Prototypes & Other Deconstructions : Art Paper Editions : 9789493146044 : 9493146049 : 04 Mar 2019 : 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 clou