In the recent years the world has become more polarized and our human tendency to divide everyone into “us” and “them” has become more pronounced. My current project, titled “Us and Them,” shows the cross section of a house depicted twice. In one the rooms with ‘good’ scenes—an elderly couple dancing, a family at dinner, a girl reading—are illuminated, while in the other only the ‘bad’ scenes, such as people fighting and a man watching pornography, are lit up.
When we think about a group of people that we consider “us” we tend to think of the good things in our “house”, while when we think about “them” we often focus only on problems. For example, I really enjoy travelling to Mexico and in particular to Mexico City because of the vibrant artistic life, excellent museums and galleries and amazing food, yet when I tell people in the US that I am going to Mexico I get concerned questions about whether it is dangerous because they are only familiar with negative information about Mexico; when I tell these same people about my travels in the US nobody raises an eyebrow even though some of the places I visit have higher crime statistics than Mexico City.
“Us and Them” is a work in progress. I began by creating the 3-D model of the house and then lighting it in two different ways to create “us” and “them” sides. I am using the 3-D model as a rough draft for my finished drawings, which I am currently creating one room at a time.
One of the early sketches that I did as I was visualizing the overall concept of the piece.
After sketching out the basic concept, I started visualizing and creating parts that make up the whole.
This is a finished 3D model of Room 3. I made each part individually and then arranged everything together and added lights.
I use a 3D model as a rough draft for a drawing. Drawing is a final product. Drawing process is long and labor intensive. While I work digitally, each line is drawn individually. This is a quick recap of the process.
After all the drawings are finished I will combine them into two large pieces: one house where only good scenes are lit up and another where only bad scenes are visible – Us and Them. These completed homes will be projected onto one wall of a gallery. The individual drawings of lit up rooms will also be printed, framed and hung individually around the gallery.
This will be a participatory artwork. To facilitate this I will invite viewers to think of a community that they belong to, which could be their family, workplace, city, state, country, or another group they identify with. Then they will write down one thing that makes them proud of their community and one thing that is a problem in it. Their answers will be projected on a wall next to the drawings.
My goal for this project is to make people more aware about how we divide the world into “us” and “them” and begin to see the good things about the houses of others and problems in their own.
Anna Zusman is a visual artist whose drawings employ visual metaphors and surreal elements to comment on the human condition and society. She currently lives in Magnolia, AR, and teaches drawing and illustration at Southern Arkansas University. She has exhibited widely in the US and her work has been featured in a variety of national and international publications.
