AOKOA

Katy McCarthy, Ben Sanders, Megan Mueller, James Van Arsdale, Katrina Trajano, David Kilpatrick, Jonny Troyna, Steve Kim

Curated by Warren Schultheis

For the last 30 years, the design language of RV’s has remained mostly unchanged. That is; tan, brown, teal, charcoal and burgundy lines, swooshes and swirls in varying combinations and sub-genres are pervasive and expected. It’s a visual language we absent-mindedly assume is intentional - the logical output of focus groups and consumer research. But upon closer inspection, this seems unlikely - and begs a host of interesting questions: Is there only one dominant style system palatable to a certain demographic? Can prosaic visual aesthetics quietly self-perpetuate? Does this homogenized language of swooshes conceal other complexities embedded in our relationship to leisure? What other assumptions - visual, linguistic, or other - are we absent-mindedly participating in? Would you put a maroon or beige swoosh on your house? A Tesla? Your phone? Your forearm? The seven artists in AOKOA respond and expand thoughtfully on this theme, creating their own prompts and questions - which in turn invite us to new vistas of American language and leisure.