found objects
Repurposed everyday items
Found objects are ordinary items—often discarded or overlooked—repurposed as art or incorporated into artwork.
The term comes from the French *objet trouvé* and is central to movements like Dada and surrealism.
A rusted gear, a broken doll, driftwood: the artist's selection and presentation transforms the mundane into the aesthetic.
The sculpture was assembled entirely from found objects.
- readymadePrepared in advance
- objet trouvéEveryday item presented as art
- assemblageCollected group of things
- Marcel DuchampUrinal-as-art provocateur
- chance encounterUnintended crossing of paths
junk · beachcombing · collage · mixed media · bricolage · debris · trash · eco-art · Kurt Schwitters · garbage · adaptive reuse · rubbish · litter · Dadaism · montage · recycled materials · upcycling · driftwood
- Outsider Artnaive art, primitive art, self-taught artists, emotional honesty, religious visions
- collagraphybrayer, paper cutouts
- found materialsdriftwood, sea glass, bottle caps, shells, seashells
- avant-gardeDada, Dadaism, Futurism, Constructivism, Cabaret Voltaire
- pop artpop art, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, soup cans, screenprint
- unusual instrumentstheremin, musical saw, hurdy-gurdy, glass harmonica, sackbut
found objectstraditional craftsmanship
Skilled handwork preserving old methods
found, foundation, finding, objects, findings, founded, finder, finders, foundational