Katharina Koch, born in 1975, currently lives and works as a designer, artist, and illustrator in Berlin after spending six years in Basel and Zurich. She studied Industrial Design (Berlin-Weissensee Art Academy, University of the Arts) and Visual Communication in Basel (Basel Art Academy). In addition to many exhibitions and projects as an artist and illustrator, she worked as a designer for accessories, including for the Porsche Design Group. In 2014, she successfully founded her own accessories label, POMPONPOUF. www.pomponpouf.de

The designer largely explores the theme of fashion in her artistic works, focusing on the depiction of garments and their visual materiality. She is also concerned with sustainability in relation to textile remnants and their reinterpretation in the form of weaving and both free-form and applied objects. The idea revolves around the sustainable use of continually accumulating textile remnants. Even a single family constantly produces textile waste. These remnants are not turned into textile waste here, but rather, the designer develops and experiments with a variety of new products — from simple accessories to art objects. “We live today in a society of abundance, rapid use, and disposability — this presents a counterpoint, sketching an alternative!”

Her passion for painting and drawing forms the basis of each of her unique designs. The combination of photographic fragments, paper collages, objects, painting, and drawings results in very extravagant, playful designs — collages with delicate details, featuring rich, exuberant, and sometimes gentle colors. These are theatrical visual worlds that immerse one in their own dream and fantasy realms. Even upon a second look, the fascination remains, continually revealing new and unexpected details, a game of hidden elements and a modern trompe l’œil, alongside the camouflage of nature. These designs, full of sensuality, reflect pure zest for life and are deeply touching.

The work of artist Katharina Koch continues to evolve. She draws her inspiration with great meticulousness and sensitivity from the influences and tensions between wild nature and the remnants of urban civilization. As an urban collector, she unites her personal finds and treasures from dreamy, small banalities. The dust of the big city and its traces are regarded as precious, like gold dust. High culture meets low culture, and the seemingly kitschy is cited with fine irony. From seemingly randomly captured dreams, she combines a fairytale-like collection.