Ten favourite things: Artfully done

Artist Richard Orjis photographed in his kitchen at home in Onehunga. Photo / Babiche Martens

Mud, flowers and burning trees: these are all things that have featured in the distinctive works of artist Richard Orjis.

The Auckland based artist has exhibited his eerie-but-beautiful pieces in New Zealand and beyond, with a new exhibition set to open on October 12 at Karangahape Rd's Starkwhite gallery.

Orjis says the exhibition centres on a sculptural piece that "explores ideas around life and death, beauty and failure.

"It's a departure from the work I've done previously that has either been photographic, or paintings using mud as a medium, where I had created a fictional flora-obsessed, earth-worshipping cult," says Orjis, who also works as a lecturer at The Manukau School of Visual Arts and as the arts editor for No magazine.

He lists his 10 favourite things right now, from food porn to a passion for night school pottery classes.

1. Jennifer Mason's photograph Skate Dad
This photo was a present and, this sounds silly, but I love how the background matches the colour of the frame; also the seemingly comical pose that talks so much about the dependent nature of romantic relationships.

2. Nightschool pottery
A group of friends and I spent Tuesday nights this year delving into the messy world of pottery with Bruce Turtle at Onehunga High School, allowing us to make a variety of idiosyncratic works. I think it's criminal how the Government has slashed funding for nightschool as it has been enriching people's lives and allowed them to upskill for the past 100 years in New Zealand.

3. Kennedy Brown's Celebrant chair
Kennedy designed this chair for a church in South Auckland; it also featured in the New Zealand room at the Venice Biennale this year. His furniture captures the aesthetics of the past and reinvents them for a contemporary era.

4. Curio Noir candles by Tiffany Jeans
These beautiful skull candles were scattered over the tables at her wedding with an attached note "til death do us part". Awesome!

5. Poul Henninsen light
This was a hand-me-down from my parents, and I've also inherited their love of Scandinavian design. The lamp has a beautiful chip on the bottom lip: I think if we can appreciate ageing and flaws in the objects we covet we might deal better with them in ourselves.

6. Crane Brothers
I like to buy New Zealand made and would rather have a few good quality things and wear them to death. I appreciate Crane Brothers' attention to detail and old world customer service. My partner arranged a surprise fitting for a Crane Brothers suit for my birthday which was a very welcome extravagance.

7. Victa Enviro-mower
Our friend Fleur christened him Gary, and I love Gary. He's silent, efficient and generally amazing, and you don't have to worry about petrol and fumes - all you do is plug him in overnight when you're done. I think a lot about gardens, and as my art often uses images of flora in the future I want to create an art/garden project.

8. Tessa Laird's ceramics
I am fascinated by her obsession into varying cultures and how her work documents these journeys. I found this piece at an art garage sale she hosted. I like the earthy handmade quality and the intricately hand-painted design: I think of it as a fertility symbol from some imaginary archaeological dig.

9. Nigella Lawson's Feast
Alison Holst refers to her cookbooks as "dirty books": all the good cookbooks, she says, get covered in batter and general splatter from frequent use and Nigella's Feast is no exception. I do buy cookbooks as a sort of food porn and never really cook from a lot of them, but this book is used nearly every family event and the Chocolate Guinness cake is failsafe gastronomic genius.

10. Marie Shannon watercolour
Marie does beautiful work, often of her immediate domestic environment. I had made the actual art therapy candlestick holders for an Edward and Son craft fair and I was so honoured when Marie contacted me to say she'd bought them, and had done paintings of them, and offered me one!

* Starkwhite, October 12 till November 7, 2009, 510 Karangahape Road, Auckland.