Theres a creature coming to Decorex Africa this year. It doesnt have a name but it is something between a monster and a soft thing. Its form came from a phone screen late at night, from a mother working between family demands and whatever time she could steal for herself. The AI image was generated in Midjourney, guided by a colour palette from a show curator who fell in love with its strangeness.
Now craftspeople who build monumental works for AfrikaBurn have translated it into a physical sculpture at the centre of this years 100 Design Africa installation at Decorex. People will walk around it, touch it. They wont necessarily know it was created through an algorithm, shaped by the dreams and artistic sensibility of a human.
The theme for Decorex 2026 is The Soft Life. Creative directors Garreth van Niekerk and Alan Hayward say the decision was instinctive the phrase seemed to name something already in the air either an idea so obvious it risks saying nothing, or so precisely calibrated to the moment that it functions like a mirror.
