All Power to the Linemen

By Allison Engel on May 22, 2009 2:07 PM

MFA art student Michael Parker happened upon his thesis project while riding his bicycle to class. It was hard to miss. A grid of gigantic wood poles suddenly had appeared on a dirt lot on the corner of Washington and Flower streets.

Since he is an art student, Parker’s first thought was that it was a modern sculpture. But he soon realized its intended purpose when he saw guys in hardhats climbing on the poles wearing leather belts and metal spikes.

He had stumbled upon the “pole yard” at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, where fledgling power pole technicians take class for eight hours a day, five days a week for 16 weeks.

Parker, an outgoing, energetic student from New York City, gained permission from the instructor, Ken Bushman, to document the journey that 50 men from varied backgrounds took to feel comfortable working atop 35-foot Douglas fir poles.

Helped by USC Roski School of Fine Arts seniors Nick Nemecheck and Marinna Wagner, Parker spent several hours a day at the yard during spring semester and produced a two-hour video culled from 35 hours of tape, 3,500 digital images and 20 rolls of medium format film. Collaboratively, the class created a 20-minute looped video in which each student took portraits and self-portraits as they passed a double-headed video camera “baton” between each other high up on the poles.

Parker then mounted the work in “May Day: Control the Power - Follow the Energy,” an exhibition that debuted on May 1 at the USC Roski Graduate Gallery at 30th and Flower, complete with 18 “butt-end stools” made from training pole stumps. There was a large turnout of family and friends from the linemen class at the opening - the first time many of them had ever attended an art exhibition.

USC Roski dean Ruth Weisberg was thrilled (“This was a very positive example of the potential role for fine art to play in society”) and Parker was, too. “I was very excited to collaborate with the class and for others to celebrate with us.”

For those who would like to see the second public presentation of their work together, there will be a live event at the pole yard at from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on June 2. In addition to pole climbing and lunch, a class yearbook in the form of a newspaper detailing student biographies - many inspirational and transforming - will be released. The newspaper is a collaboration between USC and the technical college.

So many questions, but there’s space for just one. Did Parker ever try a climb?

“After a month, the guys were encouraging me, so I did,” he said. “I had been observing so long and paying so much attention that I had to try it.”

And how was it?

“Scary. Your legs shake. But Bushman told the class that we all are born with a certain fear of heights. A big part of the class is to get over this fear by being in the moment, breathing and being calm in an incredibly unnatural situation.”

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