Finders Keepers

About

The things we choose to keep reveal what we care about. At a time when so much is treated as disposable, Finders Keepers asks a simple but urgent question: What is worth keeping?

Presented by EDE Projects in collaboration with Blanco Gallery, Finders Keepers brings together artists Eloise Dethier-Eaton and Charly Helyar in an exhibition exploring how acts of care, repair and preservation can transform the overlooked into something precious. Curated by Adela Blanco, the exhibition suggests that value is not something fixed or intrinsic, but something created through labour, memory and our willingness to care.
Although working in distinct ways, both artists begin with materials that have already lived another life. Through painting, sculpture and assemblage, discarded objects become carefully tended repositories of memory, inviting us to reconsider not only what we throw away, but also what we choose to preserve.

Belgo-British artist Eloise Dethier-Eaton rescues abandoned boards from skips and pavements before painstakingly repainting them using the centuries-old tradition of trompe-l'œil. What first appears to be marble, stone or richly grained timber is, in fact, discarded wood transformed through meticulous craftsmanship. By creating moments of visual deception, Dethier-Eaton quietly unsettles the hierarchies we assign to materials, revealing how value is shaped as much by perception as by substance. Her practice becomes a form of material stewardship, extending the life of objects that might otherwise be lost to landfill.

Charly Helyar's intimate Matrices series similarly begins with fragments of the discarded. Broken furniture is dismantled and reassembled into jewel-like constructions containing tiny oil paintings on copper and linen - works small enough to rest in the palm of a hand. These contemporary reliquaries preserve fleeting domestic moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed, elevating the everyday through acts of devotion and care.

Alongside her artistic practice, Helyar has worked for many years as a paramedic. Daily encounters with people during moments of vulnerability have given her a profound understanding of care and the fragility of ordinary life. That experience quietly informs her work, where salvaged materials and everyday human experiences are treated with equal tenderness. Her paintings ask us to value the seemingly insignificant and to recognise that the smallest moments are often those we carry with us the longest.

Together, the artists suggest that preservation itself can be a creative act. Whether restoring discarded materials or safeguarding fragile memories, their practices reveal care as an investment of time, attention and belief in the possibility of renewal. In both bodies of work, value emerges not from rarity or expense, but from the relationships we build with objects, places and one another.

The exhibition has particular resonance with Rye, a town long associated with antique dealers, collectors, foragers, magpies and treasure hunters. Here, the search for hidden value has long been woven into the town's identity, making it a fitting setting for an exhibition that celebrates finding possibility where others see waste.

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.