Sculptures+ | Stief Desmet

We are particularly pleased to be able to exhibit an overview of work by Desmet, which has already been given a place in various public locations in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The exhibition SCULPTURES includes an extensive selection of recent work by the artist; sculptures, supplemented with work on canvas and paper.

Stief Desmet's work is typified by the relationship between nature and culture, where one ends and the other begins. He focuses on man's desire for a natural, harmonious world, as a counterweight to our hectic consumer society. Man's ambiguous attitude towards nature fascinates Desmet: “We are crazy about nature, but we also prefer to keep it under control. We put plants in the house or keep a dog, want to continue to surround ourselves with the untamed. The statues in beautifully maintained front gardens are never tame guinea pigs, but eagles or lions. I find it encouraging that we still want to surround ourselves with the untamed.”

In the work IKAROS (image), the polyhedrons symbolize the human urge to reduce everything in nature to geometric shapes (Ancient Greeks and Renaissance). Will the Ikaros wing keep its balance in all of this?
And the cropping of his sculptures, as in the work Monument for a broken deer (image), also has to do with the tension between man and nature. With the docking, the artist wants to emphasize the loss of the animals through human actions. Where it was cut, the bronze was polished and that catches more light. So you see the inside rather than the figure itself.” The contrast between the round, animal body and the clean lines beautifully represents the human urge to tame the wild in nature.

Desmet came out late with his sculptures. His work remains a quest, and he wants it that way: “One of the reasons why I wanted to become an artist is not to have to do the same thing every day.” Desmet never had a well-defined plan in mind for his career either. “I want to sit in my studio every day and see what happens.