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, MetroCards are a creative material with an endless amount of possibilities. For a recent exhibit at Sloan Fine Art Gallery, 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.

在紐約，黃綠色的地鐵卡和鴿子、出租車一樣無處不在。對于大多數人來說，這小小的塑料卡片只有一個用處，就是方便他們出行。但對于像斯蒂芬·夏新這樣的藝術家來說，地鐵卡可是神奇的材料，蘊含著無限可能性。最近在斯隆管理學院美術館展覽上，就有一張斯蒂芬用5000張回收地鐵卡做成的結實、可用的椅子。每年，大都會捷運局（Metropolitan Transit Authority）會印制1.7億多張地鐵交通卡，但對斯蒂芬來說，積累幾千張也是一個不小的壯舉。

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

夏新設計這張椅子是為了參加一個名為“單程票2：請再刷一次”的地鐵卡藝術設計展。在這場設計展中，大多數的藝術家都會提交用地鐵卡制成的微型畫，但夏新希望能設計一個雕塑作品，尤其是一張椅子。有了這個點子后不久，他就意識到他會需要幾千張的地鐵卡。夏新曾試著去和大紐約交通運輸管理局溝通，但是沒有成功，于是他轉向了Craigslist，一個分類廣告網站。不到一周，他就搜集到了需要的地鐵卡。

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, the different shades of yellow resemble wood grain.

這張地鐵卡的椅子將數萬段不同的旅程結合在一起，這一點很像地鐵交通本身。但是地鐵卡本身代表著人們的移動，而夏新的這個設計卻代表著休息。這張椅子其實是鋼架結構的，但在夏新的設計下，看起來好像僅僅是數萬張地鐵卡搭造起來的。卡片之間的層次很緊湊，于是看起來有了漂亮的條紋結構，另外，就像夏新說的，卡片上黃顏色的陰影看起來類似木質的紋理呢。

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."

夏新把他設計這張椅子的過程都寫在了博客上。“我認為，對一個設計來說，重要的是要將顏色及每個部分都融合起來，而不能看起來只是像在鋼架椅子上鋪滿了地鐵卡。”夏新寫道，“新的設計必須要獨特的特質，能在結合中看到有新的內容。”

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（來源：滬江英語 編輯：崔旭燕）