Metrobench by Stephen Shaheen

The Metrobench has been designed by Stephen Shaheen and is a conceptually-driven sculptural seating element made from recycled New York City Metrocards.

With this Metrobench the artist tried to represent the manner in which mass transit joins many diverse lives into a single moment or path together. This is quite cool if you think about it! Using Craigslist, Stephen harnessed the people of New York to help him gather 5,000 Metrocards in less than a week. For this bench, Stephen also used his personal and expendable discarded Metrocards, and the result is quite spectacular and original. It tries to reflect the idea of movement for people, because millions of New Yorkers, each with their separate lives, are brought together on the transit system every day.

Each card that takes part of the creation of this Metrobench has a distinct and intimate history from the life of a New Yorker. “There are untold personal stories in that inconspicuous, flimsy plastic”, and everyone of them is stitched together into a fluid tapestry. The bench was assembled completely by hand, card by card.