just a few favourite things

In just a few favourite things, Niomi Sands turns her attention to the quiet eloquence of everyday objects, those unassuming companions that gather meaning through use, memory, and time. Beginning with a simple invitation to participants, “What objects best represent your life, and what are your three favourite colours ?”, Sands creates space for personal histories to surface through the material traces people choose to keep. While the project nods to the nostalgic cadence of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s My Favourite Things (1959), its focus lies not in sentimentality but in the human instinct to anchor identity in the tangible.

Sands translates these stories into a refined visual language of thread, paper, and silhouette. Sewn works on Arches paper, suspended thread drawings, and hand‑stitched paper installations operate as both portraits and abstraction forms. Each piece distills an object to its essential form, allowing viewers to sense the presence of what is no longer physically there. The stitched line, fragile yet insistent, echoes the emotional threads that bind people to their belongings, revealing how memory resides not only in narrative but in material gesture.

As the exhibition unfolds, just a few favourite things becomes a meditation on the impulse to treasure, archive, and remember. Sands invites viewers to reflect on their own cherished objects and the stories they carry, recognising that the things we hold close often speak most clearly about who we are. This body of work stands as both a collective portrait and an intimate offering, an exploration of how the ordinary becomes extraordinary through the lives it touches.