I am interested in reinterpreting the traditional role of decoration within the domestic landscape as merely ornamental. Though often dismissed for its lack of function, decor has no interest in performing a role or subscribing to users’ assumptions. In my practice, decor’s pointlessness is its point, becoming a potent channel for ambiguous narratives. My objects embody the tender and macabre, the coy and banal, side-eyeing the viewer from atop their pedestals or positions on the wall. A crossover between soft sculpture and slow craft, these assemblages are a kind of Alt-Decor.

Katharine.NF is the design-art practice of Kate Ferguson. Classifying her sculptural objects as “Alt Decor,” Ferguson is interested in juxtaposing the purposelessness of decoration with bodily, biographical materials—all while winking at her objects’ lack of function. She has shown with NADA, JonaldDudd, and Galerie Shibumi. 

Ferguson holds an MA in Interior Architecture from the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University in Boston. She was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is currently based in Brooklyn.