Evan Berg: Growth Machine

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Evan Berg, "Growth Machine," 2021

installation view

Visual artist Evan Berg takes over the Main Gallery of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art with a new video-installation titled Growth Machine.

Growth Machine references the dominant role that capitalism and capitalists play in (re)making cities primarily as sources of continuous capital accumulation, rather than as living and dwelling spaces for the cities’ occupants. Through a combination of video footage the artist has captured and Youtube how-to tutorials, Berg takes a satirical stance (against) the development of urban space as a growth machine. 

Growth Machine both investigates and contests the commodification and financialization of both urban space and urban life itself. It contests the way that important questions of urban existence get reduced to questions of profit and loss in a system designed as an urban growth machine.

“Berg’s exhibition at the Alternator comes at an apt point for our City. As we grapple with sustainability, affordability and expansion, we have heard many times of the need for strategic growth to address some of our community’s most pressing issues. Berg’s exhibition examines these issues on a macro scale, and encourages us to question the foundations on which urban growth is based.“ - Artistic and Administrative Director Lorna McParland.