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From Austerity series Fresno USA 2023

Austerity: Observational Studies of Inflation and Psychological Perception in Post-Pandemic California

This research-led art project examines the material and psychological consequences of inflation in California following the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed through observational fieldwork conducted in everyday commercial environments—supermarkets, petrol stations, and residential neighbourhoods—the project documents the visible and invisible effects of price escalation on public perception, social behaviour, and economic anxiety. By situating artistic research within sites of routine consumption, the work explores how inflation becomes embedded in the daily rhythms of life and how individuals interpret, misunderstand, or selectively rationalise its broader structural impacts.

The project emerged during a period in which the United States, and California in particular, experienced a sharp rise in consumer prices following the pandemic. Supply-chain disruption, stimulus spending, housing demand, and energy volatility contributed to a prolonged phase of inflation that was most immediately visible in essential goods. Supermarkets and petrol stations became inadvertent indicators of economic instability; price boards and shelf labels functioned as constantly shifting markers of value. Through systematic observation, photographic documentation, and written field notes, the project treats these spaces as contemporary economic landscapes—sites where abstract financial processes manifest in tangible, everyday transactions.

Central to the research is the disparity between measurable economic change and public interpretation of that change. Interviews and informal conversations conducted during fieldwork revealed a fragmented understanding of inflation across different social groups. While rising food and fuel costs were widely recognised as burdensome, the broader mechanisms producing those increases were often poorly understood. The project therefore investigates inflation not only as an economic phenomenon but also as a psychological and cultural one. Misinterpretations—particularly around property value, taxation, and perceived wealth—frequently shaped how individuals positioned themselves within the wider economic environment.

A notable pattern observed during the research concerns attitudes toward the real estate market. In several demographic segments, rising property values were interpreted positively, often framed as evidence of personal financial success or long-term security. Homeowners, in particular, frequently perceived inflation through the lens of asset appreciation rather than cost-of-living pressure. However, the project identifies a structural contradiction within this perception. While increasing property prices may create the illusion of wealth, they simultaneously trigger higher property taxation, insurance costs, and maintenance expenses. In this sense, inflation produces a concealed financial burden: the nominal increase in asset value becomes accompanied by an expanding tax obligation that gradually erodes affordability.

This contradiction forms a key conceptual element of the artwork. Inflation, within the context of property markets, operates as a form of indirect taxation. As property values rise, local tax assessments increase accordingly, producing a financial pressure that is less visible than rising grocery or fuel prices but often more significant over time. The research therefore frames inflation as a redistributive mechanism that quietly restructures household finances. What appears superficially as economic growth can, in practice, function as a prolonged extraction of wealth from the same populations who appear to benefit from asset appreciation.

Artistically, the project approaches these dynamics through a methodology that combines documentary observation with critical economic analysis. Rather than producing overtly illustrative imagery, the work focuses on mundane environments—parking lots, fuel pumps, supermarket aisles, real estate signage—treating them as visual evidence of systemic change. These spaces become a form of social archive, capturing the everyday surfaces through which macroeconomic policy and global supply chains are experienced by individuals.

By situating inflation within the visual culture of ordinary consumer environments, the project expands the role of contemporary art as a form of socio-economic inquiry. The work positions artistic practice as a parallel research method capable of revealing contradictions that conventional economic discourse often obscures. In this context, austerity is not simply a governmental policy or budgetary constraint; it becomes a lived condition shaped by price fluctuations, asset speculation, and the psychological narratives through which people attempt to make sense of economic instability.

Ultimately, the project argues that inflation is as much a perceptual phenomenon as it is a financial one. The psychological framing of rising asset values can obscure the deeper structural costs that accompany them, particularly in relation to property taxation and long-term affordability. By documenting the everyday spaces where these tensions unfold, the project seeks to expose the subtle mechanisms through which economic systems redistribute wealth and reshape social behaviour in the aftermath of the pandemic.