A new exhibition, Finders Keepers, has opened at EDE Projects on Cinque Ports Steet bringing together artists Eloise Dethier-Eaton and Charly Helyar, whose work explores how discarded and seemingly worthless items can be transformed and preserved.
Although the two artists work differently, they both start with found objects and through painting, sculpture and assemblage, give them a new meaning and purpose.
Eloise Dethier-Eaton takes wooden boards found in skips and on pavements and repaints them using trompe l’oeil so that they look convincingly like grained wood, marble or stone, giving a new lease of life to objects that might have ended up in landfill.
Eloise Dethier-Eaton said, “I always think there’s a wonderful energy to artworks made from found objects. There’s the history in the found object, the luck it takes to find it and the potential for future interpretation in the hands and mind of the finder. These layers can imbue found objects with real character and charm.”
In her series, Matrices, Charly Helyar takes broken furniture and constructs spaces to hold her small oil paintings on copper and linen. They capture ordinary domestic moments that can pass unnoticed, moments of memories of the fleeting and seemingly insignificant.
Charly Helyar said, “Eloise and I are both adding value to materials destined for the tip, repurposing what others see as rubbish into objects that carry new meaning and emotional resonance.”
Curated by Adela Blanco of the Blanco Gallery, the exhibition suggests that value is not something fixed or intrinsic, but something created through labour, memory and our willingness to care. “Their practices encourage us to slow down, look more closely and rethink what deserves to be preserved. Bringing these artists together at EDE Projects felt especially meaningful in Rye, where a culture of collecting, foraging and rediscovery mirrors the spirit of the exhibition.”
At a time when consumption often encourages us to replace rather than repair, Finders Keepers offers a quietly hopeful alternative. It asks what becomes possible when we choose restoration over disposal, attention over neglect and care over convenience.
Image Credits: Juliet Duff , Adela Blanco , Eloise Dethier-Eaton , Charly Helyar .