On view in the Dixon Gardens. This project was made possible by a generous gift of corrugated cardboard from International Paper.

For one week this spring, Memphis College of Art juniors and seniors in Assistant Professor Elizabeth Brown’s Sustainable Sculpture: Works in Cardboard class will showcase their outdoor creations on the grounds of the Dixon Gardens. The sculptures, made completely or mostly out of cardboard, draw on the students’ inspiration from the link between nature and culture.While all sculptures relate to the show’s overarching theme, individual works also touch on ideas of life and death, transformation, transience of time and objects, gender, beauty, history, competition, animal nature of humans, the relationship of the insect world with the human world, and music.  The exhibition will make a statement even as it disintegrates over time and with the elements.  The students displaying work are Nick Darmstaedter, Ric Evans, Alex Lee, Olivia Logan, Robbie McElhaney, Adra Maner, Melinda Parra, Jonathan Rodriguez, Nicole Trimble, Austin Williams, Lisa Williamson and Sean Winfrey. These promising young artists have used a variety of both traditional sculpting, woodworking, and papermaking techniques, as well as more innovative methods, including knitting with cardboard “yarn.”