Thursday March 2oth
Opening 6pm-9pm

RUTH RO
GENERAL AMERICAN

America is commerce, America is a dream and America is a brand.  It’s a globally-shared belief that America stands for the values of freedom, wealth and the pursuit of happiness.  And despite the constantly changing economic environment, America is a brand so powerful that it can even transcend real circumstances. General American: Words, Symbols and the Pursuit of Happiness explores these elements of the most powerful brand in the world. 

Ruth Ro, the artist, became intrigued with the American Dream after having moved with her family at the age of 3 from a house in Seoul, Korea to a one-bedroom apartment in Elmhurst, Queens.  A part of adjusting to American life meant figuring out how to sort through seemingly similar products differentiated only by its name and creating logic from the symbols ®, TM, Inc. Soon, identifying certain words and symbols became a method of choosing one brand among many.  Companies from American Airlines to American Express and General Electric to General Motors started to evoke trust, comfort, and assurance just by its name alone.  And the brands themselves became the manifestation of the American Dream.

The power of words and symbols became ever more significant in its absence when, for a period of time, her family relied on government subsidies and the cellophane package of Kraft® Slices was replaced with a plain, white box with the words “American Cheese” in black.  General American was developed in part from Ro’s fascination with the neutralizing font Helvetica and the realization that the words used in America’s most popular brands, stripped from its context, still evoked the same nostalgic feeling of American idealism.

Ruth Ro is a New York based artist and architect.  This is Ms. Ro’s second solo exhibition.