Art handlers worry that their employers are compromising their health and safety for the sake of expediency. With no benefits, health insurance or paid holiday, Zachary Small asks: why enter the profession at all?
'The gallery wall that broke Michael Pajón’s body crashed into the art handler with the force of a grand piano. He remembers the precise moment when the movable partition collapsed upon him, puncturing his ribs and snapping his leg backward. Dragged from the wreckage by coworkers, he entered a state of shock as his friend Natalie McLaurin anxiously hovered above him. The 35-year-old was rushed by ambulance to the nearest hospital; in the accident, he had lost nearly two pints of blood. Pajón stayed under doctor supervision for weeks until he was finally released home with shattered bones, broken vertebrae, a partially collapsed lung, damaged arteries, blood thinners, a back brace, and a wheelchair. It would take more than a year until he fully recovered from these debilitating injuries. He thought he would never be an art handler again.
Four years later, memories of that day still haunt Pajón. In July 2015, he thought he was going to die pinned to the floor of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Today, he’s simply looking to regain a piece of himself that he lost that day. “It’s a bit of a struggle,” he said, “I feel like I’m still in the process of coming out the other end of things.”' ... Keep reading on Hyperallergic
'The gallery wall that broke Michael Pajón’s body crashed into the art handler with the force of a grand piano. He remembers the precise moment when the movable partition collapsed upon him, puncturing his ribs and snapping his leg backward. Dragged from the wreckage by coworkers, he entered a state of shock as his friend Natalie McLaurin anxiously hovered above him. The 35-year-old was rushed by ambulance to the nearest hospital; in the accident, he had lost nearly two pints of blood. Pajón stayed under doctor supervision for weeks until he was finally released home with shattered bones, broken vertebrae, a partially collapsed lung, damaged arteries, blood thinners, a back brace, and a wheelchair. It would take more than a year until he fully recovered from these debilitating injuries. He thought he would never be an art handler again.
Four years later, memories of that day still haunt Pajón. In July 2015, he thought he was going to die pinned to the floor of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Today, he’s simply looking to regain a piece of himself that he lost that day. “It’s a bit of a struggle,” he said, “I feel like I’m still in the process of coming out the other end of things.”' ... Keep reading on Hyperallergic