An exhibition exploring care and transformation is inviting visitors to reflect on what we choose to keep.
Finders Keepers, presented by EDE Projects in collaboration with Blanco Gallery, brings together artists Eloise Dethier-Eaton and Charly Helyar in Rye to explore themes of value, memory and preservation through works crafted from discarded materials.
Curated by Adela Blanco, the exhibition contends that value is created through care, memory and labour rather than being inherent to an object.
Adela Blanco said: "Finders Keepers is an exhibition about the transformative power of care.
"Eloise Dethier-Eaton and Charly Helyar remind us that value is never inherent, it is created through attention, craftsmanship and the relationships we build with objects, places and one another.
"Their practices encourage us to slow down, look more closely and rethink what deserves to be preserved."
Belgo-British artist Eloise Dethier-Eaton salvages abandoned boards and transforms them using the trompe-l'œil painting technique, creating visual illusions of marble or wood on discarded wood.
Her work challenges perceptions of value and material hierarchy.
Artist Charly Helyar reconstructs broken furniture into small reliquaries that house oil paintings on copper and linen, capturing fleeting domestic moments and elevating the everyday.
Ms Helyar, who has also worked as a paramedic, said: "Eloise and I first talked about this exhibition towards the end of our MA at City & Guilds of London Art School, so it's exciting to finally realise it together.
"We 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."
The exhibition reflects Rye’s long-standing culture of collecting, foraging and rediscovery.
Ms 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."
Finders Keepers runs from August 28 to September 20 at EDE Projects, 4 Cinque Ports Street, Rye.
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