NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

11/02/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES -Several boxes of scrap newspaper found a new use as a work of art at Northwestern State University.

Students in a Design II class taught by Assistant Professor of Sculpture Matthew DeFord used old newspapers and masking tape to create a sculpture on the second floor of the new wing of the A.A. Fredericks Center for Creative and Performing Arts. The piece is near an entranceway that is used as a student lounge.

"The idea is to teach a way to change a place instead of just creating a piece of sculpture," said DeFord. "When you look at contemporary art such as a sculpture or painting in the environment of a gallery, it is about how the space is altered. I wanted to convey that and do it inexpensively."

DeFord said he got the idea for the sculpture recently when he was visiting a gallery in Maine. The gallery had a freestanding sculpture made from newspaper and masking tape that gave him an idea.

DeFord went to the Natchitoches Times, which also prints other local and area newspapers. The Times provided him with scrap paper from printings of The Real Views, The Current Sauce, the Sabine Index and other area newspapers.

Students in the class rolled up the newspapers and used masking tape to hold the pieces together. Some of the pieces serve as arcs, going up more than 10 feet. A variety of shapes go into the work.

"It was really neat to see the pictures of what Mr. DeFord had done and then see what everyone came up with," said Holly Laurence, a sophomore studio art major from Florien. There wasn't a lot of planning. People just kind of put it together randomly."

Laurence said this is a way artists can express individuality regardless of what they are using.

"This is another way we can express ourselves through art," she said. "Not all of the sculptures are the same. I can see how everyone approaches it differently."

DeFord admits he didn't know what the end result would look like.

"I didn't really visualize it until the students started putting it together," he said. "The shapes come up off the floor and go over the couches. It is a space people walk through and they can do that, but now they see the space differently. The piece blends into the space."

The sculpture will be up for several more days and then dismantled

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