Artist Stephen Shaheen Creates a Bench Using 5,000 Recycled MetroCards

Posted By Jessica Dailey On March 30, 2011 @ 12:30 pm In Art NYC,Product Design | No Comments

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In New York City, blue and yellow MetroCards are as ubiquitous as pigeons and taxi cabs. For most people, the little pieces of plastic serve a single purpose: getting from here to there. But for artists like Stephen Shaheen ^[6], MetroCards are a creative material with an endless amount of possibilities ^[7]. For a recent exhibit at Sloan Fine Art Gallery ^[8], Shaheen created Metrobench, a sturdy, usable bench made from 5,000 recycled MetroCards. Every year, the MTA prints more than 170 million MetroCards, but, for Shaheen, amassing just a couple thousand was no small feat.

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Shaheen’s impetus for creating the bench ^[9] was the call for submissions to “Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again ^[10],” an art show of MetroCard-based art ^[11]. Most artists submit works that use the cards as a miniature canvas for paintings, but Shaheen wanted to create a sculpture ^[12], in particular, a seating element. Soon after he came up with the bench idea, he realized that he would need several thousand MetroCards ^[12]. After a few failed attempts ^[13] at getting old cards from the MTA ^[14], Shaheen took to Craigslist. Within a week, he had amassed all the cards he needed.

Much like mass transit itself, the bench represents thousands of different journeys converging into a single moment. And while the MetroCard is a source of movement for people, Shaheen’s creation is a place of rest. Metrobench has a base made out of steel, but Shaheen designed it in such a way that it appears to be created solely from MetroCards. The tight layering of the cards creates a brilliant striped pattern, and, as Shaheen notes ^[15], the different shades of yellow resemble wood grain.

When creating the sculpture, Shaheen described his process on his blog. “It is essential, in my opinion, to create a design that integrates the colors, and in fact each unit, in a way that makes the whole something more than an appliqué of Metrocards on steel,” Shaheen wrote. “The new pattern has to have its own identity and has to contribute to a sense of new content in the assemblage.”

Mission accomplished.

+ Stephen Shaheen ^[16]

Via Yanko Design ^[17]

Images © Stephen Shaheen

Article printed from Inhabitat New York City: http://inhabitat.com/nyc

URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/artist-stephen-shaheen-creates-a-bench-using-5000-recycled-metrocards/

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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/nyc/artist-stephen-shaheen-creates-a-bench-using-5000-recycled-metrocards/

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[5]  : http://inhabitat.com/nyc/artist-stephen-shaheen-creates-a-bench-using-5000-recycled-metrocards/konica-minolta-digital-camera/?extend=1

[6] Stephen Shaheen: http://stephenshaheen.com/panel/etc

[7] endless amount of possibilities: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/ny-artist-thomas-mckean-recycles-metrocards-into-amazing-sculpture-mosaics/

[8] Sloan Fine Art Gallery: http://www.sloanfineart.com/

[9] impetus for creating the bench: http://stephenshaheen.com/blog/metrobsession

[10] Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again: http://singlefare.blogspot.com/

[11] MetroCard-based art: http://inhabitat.com/nyc/artists-upcycle-1300-metrocards-into-mini-works-of-art/

[12] create a sculpture: http://stephenshaheen.com/blog/my-yellow-black-blue-valentine

[13] failed attempts: http://stephenshaheen.com/blog/enter-metropolitan-transit-authority

[14] from the MTA: http://stephenshaheen.com/blog/golden-goose-chase

[15] Shaheen notes: http://stephenshaheen.com/blog/metro-4

[16] + Stephen Shaheen: http://stephenshaheen.com/

[17] Yanko Design: http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/03/30/a-bench-with-5000-stories/

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