WORKING CLASS HEROES?
Aaron Zimmerman
It’s taken
me 4 years but I’ve finally come to terms with it. Being an art handler
that is. I used to hate it so much. Art school conditioned me to think that I
was worth more in the world with an MFA than simply moving things for a living.
Yea right. MFA’s are dime a dozen in New York. Whatever… Art handling
has been my job on and off since I got out of SVA in 1999. It’s a routine
now.
Every evening we
call the “Love line” (I guess it’s called that because we ‘love’
to know when we’re supposed to be at work the next day) listen for the recording
telling when everyone is supposed to be at Headquarters. I show up at the given
time, grab a clip board with a stack of way bills on it and get to the business
of making sure the art world has it’s objects in the right place at the
right time.
It sucks because
we often have to lift really heavy crates and large paintings up and down small
service stairways and halls. It makes my arms heavy and my back sore. And there
are days when I want to scream at over-anxious customers who say “Careful”.
“Careful with that”, “Will you please be careful with that”.
Ughhh. Like I’m some kind of brainless lug whose every move is destined
for disaster. The worst though is when a client is nice to us to our faces then
natters to the office about what we did that they didn’t like. It invites
our boss to think we’re fuck ups. We have no idea what we’ve done wrong
when be yells at us about it.
It’s not all
bad though. Some clients are really cool. They buy us lunch, tip us and ask us
our opinions about where the art should go. It gets us into some of the most
exclusive places art lives. It’s encouraging to see that in person. Also
when we leave a client’s house or business we can act however we want. Sometimes
we act like monkeys on speed and crank the radio as loud as we can. Sometimes
we just cool out and have the best conversations about art and politics. I learn
a lot that way. As long as the boss knows where we are, where we’re going
next and we’re on time everything is cool. Not to mention we’re free
from offices.
I can speak for
all of us in the Crozier Fine Arts trucking department when I say that we’d
like to be doing something better. Better meaning showing this work or performing
in our bands as our main occupation. But until (insert big time gallery name
here) or (Insert big time record label name here) gives us the call about that
studio visit that includes the exclusive representation deal and big money sales
checks pouring in by the pound we’ll keep working at Crozier.
