Untitled (black granite)

From a bird's-eye view, interpersonal tensions in a given community are invisible.  Nonetheless, Steven Beyer chose this lofty vantage point to explore issues of identity and difference in a suburban neighborhood of geometric, ranch-style homes. 

We look down on these houses as if they were pieces in a game of Monopoly.  Beyer omitted all details of individuality from the simplified, closed forms.  There are obvious racial references in his choice of Italian white marble for one and Chilean black granite for the other.  But the implied meeting is more than skin deep.

Prejudice, like charity, begins at home.  It may be generated within both of Beyer's polarized dwellings.  As embodiments of their owners, who likely have more in common than not, these cool and elegant ranches invite us to ponder the shared dimensions of the human condition.