{"id":110350,"date":"2024-05-30T09:43:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&p=110350"},"modified":"2024-06-25T14:39:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T18:39:15","slug":"the-art-of-reuse","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2024\/the-art-of-reuse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Reuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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CFA Sculpture class creates wearable, sustainable art from cardboard<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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This article and video originally published by <\/em>BU Today<\/a> on May 29, 2024. Article by Jay Kimball and Sophie Yarin. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the video above, Jeffrey Nowlin, a CFA lecturer of art, talks about how the students in his Foundation Sculpture class gain an appreciation for using found materials\u2014in this case, cardboard\u2014to create wearable sculptures. The project also teaches them a valuable lesson about creative reuse and sustainability.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the main takeaways of Jeffrey Nowlin\u2019s undergraduate Foundation Sculpture<\/a> class is that artists must make sure to cultivate a keen sense of observation. And one of the biggest observations Nowlin<\/a> (CFA\u201910), a College of Fine Arts lecturer in art, has made during his years at BU is that there\u2019s a lot of cardboard lying around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just accumulate so much of it on campus,\u201d he says. \u201cYou could really make anything with it, because it\u2019s a very flexible, versatile material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, when Nowlin introduced a cardboard sculpting project to the Foundation curriculum<\/a>, it was not only intended to help students understand that they \u201ccan make sculpture from anything\u201d\u2014it also taught a few other valuable lessons, such as how to think creatively and economically about the materials they use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another lesson, he says, is \u201cto highlight how much stuff we have as a society, and how much ends up going into our waste stream. Where are the opportunities to disrupt that stream of waste, and what can we do as individuals to reuse or rethink what we might have otherwise thrown out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since he introduced the cardboard project, Nowlin\u2019s students have sculpted reliefs, or three-dimensional pictorials, where sculpted figures remain attached to a two-dimensional background; they\u2019ve also recreated everyday objects, like oversize cameras and telephones, as well as busts of heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To source their cardboard, the class is asked to put their budding observational skills to the test by keeping an eye out for promising materials around campus. They\u2019ve also worked with BU\u2019s Office of Sustainability<\/a> to procure larger pieces from around the Charles River Campus. In March, the class went on a quick field trip down Comm Ave to the University\u2019s mixed recycling sorting area at 120 Ashford Street to rescue carts of the stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past semester\u2019s final project was a group effort: small teams of students were tasked with creating a wearable cardboard sculpture that conveys their social and political values. In their makeshift atelier, the fledgeling sculptors created pieces that range from highly ornamented couture, decked out in cardboard flowers and feathers, to more stark, direct works with overt messages of environmentalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My hope is that students leave the class knowing that they have a ton of material to work with, and that they can also be more mindful about their impact on the environment and carry that message forward in their art-making.<\/div>