Kim Paton

We asked director of Objectspace Kim Paton to share her favourite Everyday Needs pieces with us. The Everyday Needs team enjoy catching up with Kim at events run by Objectspace, NZ's leading public gallery decicated to craft, design and architecture. Kim was the driving force behind the development of Objectspace's wonderful new space in Ponsonby. Kim has curated and written extensively on craft and contemporary art and holds a First-Class Honours degree in Sculpture and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management.

1.  Ruth Castle Fruit Dish

The Woven Dish (fish basket technique) is my favourite of Ruth Castle’s works, I love its incredible simplicity. It beautifully articulates the negotiation between the maker and her materials. A survey of Ruth’s work was the first exhibition scheduled to open at Objectspace a fortnight after I took over the position of Director. Her work taught me a lot very quickly about craft in New Zealand. Craft historian Damian Skinner describes Castle’s practice as one that embodies a radical demonstration of the maker’s belief in the agency of her materials. I love the idea that the materials Ruth selects have their own force - what Ruth does is as much to understand what the material wants to do, as it is to impose her own ideas on the making of each basket.

2.100 Chairs by Martino Gamper

One of my all-time favourite exhibition catalogues. A testament to the simplicity and purity of an idea. It is simple and modest in form and gives you just enough information to be the perfect memento to an extraordinarily good exhibition.

3.Hex-O-Matic Mechanical Pencil

Everyone has a favourite stationary item, don’t they? Mine is a mechanical pencil. I visited Japan for the first time this year and came home with a suitcase full of them. This one is heavy to hold and cool to the touch.

4.Gidon Bing x EDN Stackable Mug

I’m the kind of person that picks a coffee cup for life, one cup that I use every day. It doesn’t matter what else there might be on the shelf, I love the routine and ritual in a single object that I start every day with. Gidon’s short stackable cup is perfect.

5.Taper Rainbow Candles

When I was growing up in Christchurch, my favourite weekend activity was visiting the Arts Centre markets. There was a permanent candle maker in residence, and you could select your colours and have a tapered candle dipped while you waited. I would have given a pair of rainbow tapered candles as a present at every birthday I went to from ages 10 to 15. I love that these are back in my life, a humble handmade object.