My current go-to conversation topic is to ask people about the most recession-core things they have witnessed or experienced lately.
I like asking this question because... we are in a recession. Everything is fucking expensive, we are all anxious about not having a job/losing our jobs/not getting paid enough for our jobs, and most tellingly, financial institutions keep on talking about how to jazz up our economy. We have been in a recession for a while, and no amount of talking about 'the impact of COVID', mental illness, or identity crises can cover up that up. My existential ennui may have something to do with the strong presence of Aquarius in my chart, but the fact that even mythologising about financial security is no longer possible feels like a stronger explanation for my ambient feelings of terror on a daily basis.
Talking about recession-core is great because it turns out a lot of people feel the same way. It is about dealing with the precarity of existing with an *aesthetic*. It is funny-angry in meme-form, because just being angry is exhausting and we are all already exhausted. It is an immature joke, a gag that has already gotten old, but also a way of placing the felt disappointments of everyday life within something bigger.
I have been recession-core for a while now. Perhaps it started last summer, when I felt a strong and incomprehensible urge to figure out what finance actually was. Like a good art worker, my response to this urge was to buy a book called Fictitious Capital from Verse, read it, then lie down in the dark to despair.
Reading Fictitious Capital is not an aesthetic experience; there are so many charts about the GDP of Germany and France, which makes it inherently unsexy. However, one thing that was deeply recession-core about the book was its argument that the increasing financialisation of capitalism has lead to more frequent economic crises since the 1970s. This idea is so -core, or more accurately, -core is so finance-coded. I am not going to get into the base-superstructure of this all. I'm just gesturing vaguely here at the fact that the periods between recessions are getting shorter, and that also the periods in which trends and visual aesthetics are in vogue are also getting shorter, and dramatically so.
(Apparently, TikTok teens have already started reminiscing about 2010s and in particular, tumblr culture. I'm sure there is something deeply ironic and funny about this process in a way that I don't get; I just really hope they don't bring back galaxy print in the process.)
Recession-core has been on my mind since reading Fictitious Capital, but the reality of living in a recession only really got to me when I heard about the UBS-Credit Suisse merger on one of those tiny lift-TVs that play Bloomberg news all day in March. The merger was an unnecessarily heavy-handed symbol, really, but it is a helpful benchmark in showing that we are in fact in a shitty economic situation. It's weird that I feel compelled to use this case study of two multi-billion dollar company instead of my own life, and maybe that has to do with the lingering awkwardness and shame that I feel when talking about money like the well-behaved member of the middle class I am.
Anyways, here are people's most recession-core things of late:
- Eggs are really expensive these days. There's some confusion about whether this is due to inflation or because of a big wave of Avian flu that went round earlier this year, but the fact is eggs are not on the shelves and people are rationing their intake. My brother went from buying a pack of 60 with friends for less than 10 GBP to buying a dozen for around 3 GBP, which is a big deal for someone in university.
- So many things are getting disbanded/closing down, especially in the arts. An incomprehensive list: half of the private museums in Mainland China. gal-dem. Paper Magazine. MTV. My favourite Chongqing noodle shop in Prince Edward. Buzzfeed News. Panic! at the Disco. Book Depository. I literally just opened Instagram and read that the Hong Kong news site Transit Jam is closing.
- Fighting, the latest hit single by K-pop group SVT's subunit BooSeokSoon (ft. Lee Youngji) is a song which is about how much working sucks, and how nevertheless we must struggle through labour with joy and the ferociousness of a tiger. I listen to this song approximately 5-25 times on a given working week, depending on how much sleep I've gotten, how many times Instagram has advertised unaffordable housing to me, and how much I need to be reminded that despite being an earphone-wearing zombie I need to don't give it up year, never give it up yeah. While the song itself is pretty recession-core, I think the most recession-core element of Fighting lies in its music video. Namely the fact that so much of the music video takes place on a trading floor rthat looks like this:
Babes, that's a stock-market crash. That's why you're still struggling.
- Would I be an art worker if I didn't talk about how arts programmes are getting de-funded? Yeah, arts programmes are being defunded. Times Museum in Guangzhou closed down last year because of China's economic downturn, and I understand that this is part of a wave of private museums in mainland China shuttering because their funders (mostly property developers) are strapped for cash. In terms of government funding, a few examples: Arts Council England is cutting £50m a year in funding for the arts from 2023-26, which is probably what S had in mind when they suggested this; Auckland's annual budget for 2023-24 lists a $20m cut in arts funding, and there's a campaign going to try and prevent that budget from going through.
I won't go on. If you know me irl, you will understand why looking up exactly how much funding has been cut from the arts strikes terror in my soul. What I will say is that cutting arts funding is in itself deeply recession-core; part-and-parcel of the logic of austerity which sees anything that brings pleasure into the lives of the public as unnecessary. Independent arts organisations stand the most to lose, given that their operations are often funded on a year-to-year basis.
One exception: South Korean contemporary art is doing great! Lots of funding, lots of new curatorship programmes, lots of exhibitions both in and outside of South Korea. Decades of building soft power wins; Hallyu continues. It felt like every blue-chip gallery at Art Basel found a seminal Dansaekhwa artist to represent this year, which I'm sure will have irrevocable consequences on the historical trajectory of the artistic movement. More on that in a decade.
- Having no idea how much coffee costs in Hong Kong when your mum asks, because you always make coffee at home. I got this one from A. The important context to add is that A grew up in Vietnam, where coffee culture is king, so the fact that they didn't know how much coffee costs in Hong Kong means that it is fucking expensive here and/or not that good.
- AI on so, so many levels. AI as the next thing for tech funders to hop onto, now that crypto winter seems to be forever and NFTs have failed to save our economy. AI as the solution to companies spending more money (i.e. on wages for paid labour); what's more recession-core than the feeling that your job may soon be defunct? AI, and its hyper-fixation on content as the sole framing of creative and qualitative production.
- Longer queues at the 兩餸飯 stalls. SC gave me this one, and it's true! I am afraid of the 兩餸飯 queues between 12:30-1:30pm because of their length. I also just want to mention that it feels like there are more 兩餸飯 stalls than ever, which might be a Hong Kong rent-thing, a pandemic-post-pandemic thing, or possibly just a phenomenological thing (I did not previously notice the 兩餸飯 stalls).
- Buccal fat removal surgery. I'm sure Mina Le has something to say about this.
- So, so, so many strike actions. People are sick of contract negotiations going nowhere, wages being frozen, and the cost-of-living 'crisis'. And what's the saying? When we strike, we...?
It's looking like a hot summer for recession-core, loves. (Please, is there a way we can still live with abundance?!)
Note: 6 June 2023
Just to say that pop culture critic queen Mina Le has officially mentioned recession-core in her video 'how do rich people actually dress'... we are aligned. Deeply satisfying, and great video for those looking to hear more about the fashion/aesthetics side of recession-core.
