Metro 4
February 16
I started doing some layering experiments in my living room with several Metrocards I’ve gathered. 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; the new pattern has to have its own identity and has to contribute to a sense of new content in the assemblage.
I am really enjoying a tight layering that produces sinuous, black and yellow stripes. Up close the multiplicity of satin segments look like scales, and their varying tones of yellow (depending on how used they are) also give a sense of wood grain.
The only problem with this dense weave is that it will require a lot of cards. A lot. Of cards. A quick estimate brought me to 6,500. There’s no way I can gather that many cards, especially in this timeframe and with many other commitments this month. I have to call the MTA.
Here’s what I know:
- Millions of Metrocards are produced for pennies, and they are ubiquitous;
- Anything is possible in New York (the paradoxical corollary: that which appears simple is often hard, and the absurdly inaccessible somehow within reach);
- It should be simple to find the source for new, uncredited Metrocards;
- The MTA will impede me every chance it gets.
