Contemporary art can be made with unconventional materials, such as cardboard. Don Lucho, a Chilean artist, created the "Cardboard Apartment" by painting the cardboard white, putting pieces together with tape and later drawing the details. The cardboard house is an exact replica of Lucho's apartment, featuring a full-scale kitchen, with pots and pans, as well as a toilet and a bedroom. Lucho used cardboard to create other art projects, including a car crashed into a signpost.
In industries, businesses and homes, most cardboard is primarily used for storage. In stores, cardboard boxes are commonly used to protect and keep goods of various sizes, shapes and values, including pieces of furniture, electronics, toys, clothes, books and food. Cardboard boxes are also used to ship goods. They can be reused in the household to store various items, such as magazines, books, toys, tools, clothes and DVDs, or become a bin for recyclable papers.
Billboard advertising is another creative and unconventional use for cardboard. In January 2011, an unemployed woman in Swindon, England, decided to walk around the town with a cardboard placard, after trying and failing to find a job through more conventional ways, according to BBC News. Hanna Evans, 19, described the act as a "last resort." She has been unemployed for a year and lives with her boyfriend, who is also out of work.
Cardboard can be used in a range of arts and crafts creations, especially when kids are involved. A big cardboard box can become a dollhouse, playhouse, car, boat, castle, soccer goal, sword and shield or anything the children can imagine. The material is also useful for making the scenery for a school play, masks and even some of the costumes. In addition, pictures frames, napkin holders, Halloween decorations, Nativity scenes, hats and decorative gifts boxes can be made with cardboard.