This sticker “Priority Seating for persons with ______” was designed by the NYU Flash Collective, formed in Fall 2019 as part of the Flash Collective project developed by Avram Finkelstein (co-founder of the artist collective Gran Fury and Silence=Death) during a workshop in the course, Art and Ideas: What is Social Practice Art?
The Flash collective is a new paradigm to rethink artistic activism, social engagement, and the public sphere based on collective decision-making processes. The stickers were placed on subway seats and walls across different subway lines in NYC to engage the public in the subway system, a uniquely New York public space.
During the planning process, there were a number of instances of police brutality over fare evasion and an increase in police presence in the NYC subway system. Students in Art and Ideas: What is Social Practice Art? wrote different words in the blank space of “Priority seating for persons with____, including: $2.75, morality, empathy, student debt, invisibilities, compassion, and privilege.
